Hate to tell you, but the temperature of a stepper motor has NOTHING to do with how hard the motor is working. Stepper motors run a MAX power ALL the time, whether they are pushing a heavy load, or no load at all. When NO motion is being commanded, any decent motor driver will reduce current to reduce motor heating, but other than that, it makes no difference whatsoever whether the motor is only spinning itself, or has its shaft locked. And, they pretty much ALWAYS run hot. For most steppers anything up to 85C/185F is "normal".
If the gib is stuck, you have to break it free. The gib is tapered - one end is thicker than the other. In most cases, the thicker end will be at the bottom, but it varies from machine to machine, and I don't know which way they are on a Tormach. You can figure it out by just looking at both ends - one will be considerably thicker than the other. You can use a strip of ~1/4" aluminum or brass as a drift to whack the gib free, after completely removing BOTH adjusting screws. To loosen the gib adjustment, slightly loosen (~1/8" turn) the screw at the "fat" end, then securely tighten the screw at the "skinny" end. To tighten the gib adjustment, slightly loosen the screw at the skinny end, then securely tighten the screw on the fat end. Iterate doing small adjustments until it's right.
Regards,
Ray L.