So long story short, I made it from Nashville, TN to Portland, OR with no troubles (yes there's a ride report in the works). I took a few days off here and let the brick sit at the curb while running around Portland in my friend's cage-- but come yesterday to leave and the battery is almost totally dead. As soon as I hit the starter I knew it was going to be bad, and the starter relay contacts immediately fused. Unpacked all my stuff to get at my allen wrenches to disconnect the transmission's ground lead but by the time I got there the battery was totally out of juice. I knew exactly what happened so off I went to the BMW dealer to pick up a new relay (figured it was going to be such an easy fix I would just do it brand new and be done with it). Got it, installed it, charged the battery overnight, and put it all back together. Bike starts up perfectly, battery cranking real strong (13.3v after the charge). Ran it a few minutes, shut it down, packed up and said goodbyes again and headed off. Went a mile, filled the tank, and headed back to the beach to finish up my run of 101. 90 miles in and it started getting chilly so I stopped on the side of the road to throw on my suit and gloves, bike shut down fine. As soon as I start it back up (still cranking strong) I hear a bad grinding/scraping noise and what do you know... starter is running, key on/off, killswitch on/off, the whole deal. So I just let it start itself back up and headed back to my friend's with the starter chugging away the entire trip.
What really is messing with me now is that whenever I hit my left, right, or cancel turn signal switches, they put on the 4-way hazards; and not just turn them on, they stay on as long as I hold down the switch (any of those three switches) and turn off when I let go. Horn doesn't work, and neither do headlights (load shedding relay active from the starter). Bike runs great, battery cranking away each time I checked at stoplights to see if it was still messing with me and I got home and disconnected the battery again. Battery was purchased in February or something (Odyssey PC680) and has been cranking well until I got here and let it sit.
So why is it that I freshly charged battery popped a starter relay?
A fellow on IBMWR cited his "clutch interlock switch" had 15 ohms resistance across it when closed (
http://www.ibmwr.org/ktech/starter-relay-problem.shtml). I assume this is the switch at the clutch handle? To test this do I just need to follow the wire to it's connector and read its resistance across its wires?
After I got home I pulled the starter and gave it a good cleaning, although it looked decent to begin with. But the light is fading here and I'm just about out of ideas for the night. I'll be trying to redeem the first relay to swap it back in tomorrow if all goes well.
Tried to put up as much information as I could, any hints are appreciated
