multimeter help

[bigb9582]

i bought a multimeter to check the ohms of a coil to see if its bad but the meter came with poor directions and i never used one before. so i could use some help.

the resistance of the coil is suposed to be between 10-25k ohms. with the sparkplug cap on. (per clymer manual)

with the cap on i get the following
200- no reading
2000- no reading
20k- no reading
200k- no reading
2000k- 1050
??

with the cap off and i put the meter on 200 and get no reading
2000- no reading
20k- 4.97
200k- 05.0
2000k- 005

so am i geting a reading of 5k ohms?
meaning a bad coil which would be why im geting a week spark.

the other check is 0-2 ohms
200- 00.6
2000- 001
and zero readings for the rest
so a reading of .6-1 ohm?

now tomarrow i want to check the rest of the electrical and the readings are suposed to be between 100-350 ohms, so what would i set it at and what should the reading look like??

please help, thanx

[bigb9582]

no help from anyone?

[Billy Golightly]

I'm not the best at reading these things either, but I would have to agree with your interpretation of the first reading. Try to get the range your reading, and the range on the multimeter as close as you can, like you have done.

[madmanwithmouse]

Make sure you have the wires of the meter on the right spots. Touch the leads toghter and make sure it goes to zero, since you said you have the "2s" im gonna guess you have a digatil meter. Your manuel probly calls for the "1s". Usualy a High reading means no/bad connection, where a low reading means its shorted out.

[Bryan Raffa]

you want to be on a lower setting that what your testing for.. like if your testing for 17.5 ohms and you have a 20 ohms and a 10 ohms setting you want to be on the 10 ohms setting.

[mbg75]

the plug cap may have a resistor built in, that would give you different readings

the coil has a primary and secondary side, so there should be 2 values to test for.

if you check the stator also, stator readings should be values less than 1 ohm for most machines. bad output could also effect weak spark.

[bigb9582]

cool thanx