That won't solve the conservation of momentum problems though, it'll just use more energy to get to the same state. If you could demonstrate controlling the rotation of a spacecraft just by using more inefficient motors you would upend a large portion of modern physics and could probably go and collect your Nobel prize within the week.

Ok, read TFA now. It sounds like they need to dump energy from the reaction wheels. Maybe they can do this by inducing a spin, rotating 180 on a different axis then cancelling the spin?

You can't cheat conservation of momentum, no matter how cleverly you move your spacecraft. That's why all the solutions involve expelling reaction mass. (Or, in the case of solar wind, interacting with an external force.)