window motor woes

You were checking continuity between the wire that goes into the window lift motor and what? Ground? It sounds like a switch may be bad and is crossing connections internally of you've got a bare wire somewhere that is touching something it shouldn't be. Disconnect one side's switch and try the window from the opposite side's switch and vice versa. If it works good when you unplug on of the switches then you know the switch that's unplugged is bad. If that doesn't show you anything then it's probably a bare wire somewhere.