wvmarle:
Flyback diode goes the opposite direction. In your case maybe the best place would be the direction switch but anyway it's not easy to handle when you can change direction.
so if i just put a diode from ground to the supply just before the direction switch that should help protect the triac from voltages coming back from the motor?
it may be the reason why the original driver failed, because there was no diode in place after the rectifier