Leaderboard

Both are while cranking to place a load on the wiring-- no current flow = no voltage drop and it's the drop under load we care about.

Or vice versa. with a digital meter it doesn't matter--one way you'll get positive value--tother way a negative reading. It's the magnitude that's important...

Please make the measurement I described last: "between the + battery post and the + post on the stater? In a perfect world that measurement should be 0.0 V--I.e. no voltage loss between the battery and the starter. Note: there is no connection to "ground" or the negative battery terminal in this test. Red lead to the + battery post, the black lead to the +starter terminal. This is somewhat counter-intuitive, however we want to measure the voltage difference between those points--it is an indicator of the circuit resistance.

All batteries have an quite low internal resistance. A typical lead acid battery in good condition will have a resistance of 3 to 5 mΩ (0.003 to 0.005 Ω). The "under load" voltage drop tests I described are much better at identifying poor wiring and connections than any (low current/low voltage) ohmmeter tests. Faulty connections can often measure 0 Ω with a multi-meter but actually have significant resistance under load at high currents like those drawn by a starter motor.

They're fun to play with--I have rather large top-water spinner they like to chase...

well, as we know from all the signs in our national parks... DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS...THEY WILL BECOME COMPLETELY DEPENDENT AND BE UNABLE TO FEED THEMSELVES and starve ...... .. and thats what happening to our once great country .....again, just my opinion...

And it's an entirely valid opinion--but now yo've got me going, My apologies in advance...I don't get out much anymore... My mid-20s/early 30s college dropout step-grandsons are just as you describe. Always had all they wanted on a silver platter; the "boys" their mother still calls them.. College (also paid in full by mommy and daddy) was too much like work so they couldn't hack it. The oldest "works" as a barmaid at Starbucks, The other two live in a house mommy & daddy bought for them while still in college and fart around as underlings in the IT industry (that's how daddy made his fortune to support all this silliness) so they get to ride on that. If you give someone something for nothing that's just exactly what it's worth to them. Not understanding that was the fundamental flaw in the "Great Society" scheme¹. For 60+ years we as a society have been subsidizing poverty, failure and irresponsibility--and the more of an irresponsible loser you are the more we'll give you. In doing so the leftists created a permanent underclass of poor, irresponsible, losers--who unfortunately are allowed to vote (the only real reason they are allowed to exist).. Often makes me glad I'm going on 75 and in poor health--I won't have to see where this is all going... “Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.” -Aristotle- This is where w are now--it's a collective despotism, with respect and authority vested in specific groups, but despotism nonetheless. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ¹- The Great society was based on a notion that everyone "deserved" a middle-class lifestyle. What was left out was that attaining that would require conducting your self and behaving as a such (which at the time was primarily the "Greatest generation"; founded solidly in work ethic and personal responsibility--Hell, they had just defeated REAL Nazis...