Gear indicator won't let engine start

It's been raining again. The gear indicator started blanking on fourth and fifth and now the neutral light's kaput unless I do a magic dance and the stars are all in line. Normally clears up in a day or two when it stops raining.

The clutch switch connector just goes under the tank with nothing to connect to so if I'm stopping, it's somewhere with a hill.

I thought of applying power through the handgrip connector. I figured it is normally expected to see 12V each time the clutch is pulled in anyway. Any bad experiences with this?

Then maybe it's the instrument panel. The speedo stopped yesterday and the normal tapping didn't help. I reached behind it and it kicked back to life. I used de-oxit on it only last month, guess it doesn't last.

Is the clutch switch supposed to be connected on my model or will I have to wire it in?

Hello!

Search on the net about BMW K 100 gear sensor - there is a diagram of the sensor and it's connector. I did took my sensor apart, and of course the swing arm, etc., to find out that the reason for malfunction was a loose gear indicator display unit inside instruments cluster - you can find my description on the forum.
So first check sensor wire connector - left hand side, close to frame and alternator area. Then you can use the material on the net and simple digital multimeter to check the condition of the sensor. It is simple binary code, with active 0 - gear is indicated by a connection of signal wires to ground. Then the instrument cluster, and in the end dig out the gear position sensor. That is the order of actions I would take next time to save work and money.

Best regards,