I just wanted to post and update on my recirc door motor issue.
This weekend I removed the motor, it's held in by two screws. I inspected the drive gear on the motor and all looked fine. I then took a mirror and looked at the mating gear pocket in the recirc door and couldn't see anything wrong there either. So with the motor removed I plugged it in and turned the system on and actuated the motor several times by pushing the recirc button. All seemed fine, the motor worked as I expected it should. So I reassembled it back onto the recirc door and low and behold the ticking noise is now gone. The door closes as it should and the motor stops, it doesn't try to keep rotating as it was before. So I don't know what the problem actually was. The only thing I can think is that with disconnecting the battery a couple times maybe the motor got confused and just needed to be "reset".
I'll continue monitoring it and if for some reason the problem returns I'll update this post.