Zone Valve Troubleshooting.

I have one ornery zone valve Im trying to get working.
I had replaced a thermostat over the summer (heat only) and its not working.
I tried the wiring Red on R and white on W(heat) with no luck.
There are three wires red, white and brown and by attaching them together in different pairs, the brown and white caused the manual switch to be moveable up and down like butter (success), so I am assuming the red was power for a thermo without batteries so I don't need it.

Now I had also bought a replacement motor and installed that in the zone valve a Honeywell V8043G1125 or something like that.
Now when I the thermostat is set higher than the actual temp, the zone valve opens OR at least the manual switch moves freely up and down indicating its open. THe motor itself gets hot BUT NO water seems to be flowing (no reaction from boiler tekmar lights or in circulation pumps).
Its a six zone radiant heat plus two zone hotwater base board.
The zone Im working on has a air release valve dohicky and I played with that and left it open two turns, played with all the ball valves on and off and don't think its an air issue either.
So no air, wires seem right, good motor, turns on when thermostat settings are changed. WHY THE........... is not the water flowing or system responding other than the motor getting hot???