Testing lead/wire resistance for n00bs

[-Nemesis-]

Ok, so I bought a cheap Mulitmeter from the autoshop to test the resistance of the leads on my 1UZ.
Having never used one before, and seeing as there's about 5 settings in the Ohm section, how do you actually test the resistance of the leads?
And what sort of figures should I be looking at on the screen if they are good or bad?

 

[sleeperz]

measure the leads end to end /red lead on one end black lead on the other lead.look for consistency(close readings) closer to zero means no resistance this is good.not sure of exact numbers.as far as reading your meter just read decimal point 10's 100's 1,000 1k. its not a very accurate way to test wires,sometimes wires fail under load only, and will have good idle and mid range. a visual inspection looking for carbon tracking(looks like burned gunpowder)around boots in heads.

 

[madmont]

Resistance should be less than 25000 ohms

 

[-Nemesis-]

Resistance should be less than 25000 ohms

Could you elaborate on that a little? I've heard it a few times.

I've literally never held a multimeter before. There are a bunch of resistance settings on the multimeter for ohms from lower to higher settings. Should I be using the same setting on each lead? Then just plug one on each end etc?

 

[madmont]

Just do what sleeperz said the reading should be less than 25k or 25000 okms

 

[-Nemesis-]

Ahh I get it, so the different settings merely display the same figure in a different multiple of 10. That's what had me confused, I thought the setting was something you adjusted in order to test the lead. See, n00bish.....

Thanks guys...

 

[-Nemesis-]

OK, so here's how it went. Here's a picture of my trusty $8 multimeter, the setting the switch is on is what I used as i'm still unsure of how the bloody thing works....

With the setting as is, I got results on the screen ranging from the highest (longest wire too) at 17.42 and the lowest (shortest wire) came in at around 5.5.

How do you interpret them figures? Are they good? How do they work etc?

I should rename this thread "Multimetering 101"

 

[madmont]

Those results sound good to me .Here are a couple of pictures of mine shwing one good lead and one bad one

 

[-Nemesis-]

I see your meter has only one Ohm setting, that would have made this one a lot less confusing up front....

At least there's a good chance I don't have to spend $400 just now on leads.... They all looked ok at both ends too.

 

[Peewee]

Yes, one setting ones are less confusing, but they are 10-20 times the price.
Its a trade off.