After watching a bunch of how-to videos on digital multi-meters, the answer seems to be "it depends". On the brand, model and how you are using it. But it seems Don is generally (his word) right. So, on a 2K setting, the reading is based on how many thousands of ohms you are testing. Near the top of the range is would read something like 1.945 ohms. So a resistance of 574 ohms would show on the display as .574 with the decimal before the 5.

On one of the videos, the guy actually tested a spark plug lead about a foot long. It read something like 9.86 on a 20k setting or about 9,860 ohms. That seemed high compared to Croc7's original post question.

Soooo... never completely understanding WHY some plug wires ae resistor type (considering the basic concept is to get as much voltage as possible to the plug gap) Goggled about spark plug wire resistance. Here's Hagerty's article:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/ohm-me-ohm-my-spark-plug-wires-demystified/

 

This afternoon I may take my 1979's analog multimeter out to my 1980's Mini and test one of its spark plug leads. Just to see!

Soooo, on the 2K scale what would 574 ohms read???

On my digital meter the 2K scale provides readings between 0 to 2000....

Cheers, Ian

Thanks for the clarification. Both my multimeters don't do decimals - they have proper needles and analogue scales.

Normally, on a 2K ohm scale, a reading of 0.574 ohms would be 574 ohms.

 

Don

Decimal points and multimeter ohm readings confuse me (obviously) I thought it would have been closer to 5000 ohms for a spark plug wire about 15” long.

 

What make and model? No manual? Apparently it has a digital display. Assuming it is working properly I'd read that as just over 1/2 ohm. Can you change the range to a smaller one, say 10 ohms or 1 ohm? If you can, do you get the same reading or something close? When you short the leads together, it should go to zero. Can you test it using something with known resistance, such as an 8 ohm speaker? (just the speaker alone.)

Maybe Mike ve9aa might chime in. He knows something about dancing electrons.

Multi meter scale on 2k ohm, with a reading of.574.  How many ohms is that?  Testing spark plug leads.