Hey DanO,
You're putting too much thought into those multimeter settings. If you have it set too low,it would indicate that is is off the scale; mine just shows a '1' to the far left side of the screen(on an analog meter, the needle would rocket to one side of the gage). You just turn the dial up until you get a reading.
If, on the other hand, you have the range/dial set too high, it will give you a reading, though it will not be as accurate as it could be; By turning the dial down, it would move the decimal point over, for more accuracy; Example: say you are getting a reading of 12 volts. You turn it down one, and now are reading 11.8 volts. You turn it down once more, and you are reading 11.79 volts. If you went too far, and turned it down again, it would go off the scale, and give you an indication of that, depending on your particular multimeter(mine shows that leftside '1', as mentioned above).
Same deal with resistance readings; it will either be off the scale, or not at full accuracy. Just dial it in.
If you don't have a digital meter, you can pick a decent one up at Harbor Freight for around 5 bucks. Some people still like the analog/needle style ones better, because they don't require a battery(except for ohm/resistance readings). I think the digitals are worth it, much more accurate. Just keep an extra battery on hand(mine uses a 9v battery).
I agree with you though, new coils are the way to go in my case
Post edited by: Wild & KZ Guy, at: 2005/11/12 08:27