to me, testing for shorts to frame with an Ohm meter is one of the first tests I do, and I notice GE says to do this and to voltage load test the battery before ANY other troubleshooting is done, so for that reason, I find the Ohm meter a pretty **** valuable tool, and not "fairly useless" as fixing these 2 problems ofter makes the rest of the troubleshooting considerably simpler, and whatever the repair was to "last longer".
I think BigGlittleStar is a bit confused when he says; "the increase in resistance from end to end to coiled together is just surface contact.
The wire in a coil has a slight amount of insulation on outside of the wire itself and so is not electrically "touching" the other wires, (otherwise you would have a shorted contact point and not a coil) and the Ohm meter's own current is what is creating the induction that reads a higher amount of resistance when coiled.
Big G also said; "The more wire touching itself just concentrates the resistance". ahh, no. that would be a series circuit, and this is discussing a VERY simple single circuit.
now, if my term of " "electro-magnetic induction" is as correct as "electromotive and counter-electromotive force" is maybe worth discussion...
I would also note that while he is correct that it takes more current (not JUST voltage) to initially pull in a coil, it is not as correct to state that -every- controller uses battery voltage and then cuts down the amount of voltage used to hold in the contacts. there are/were plenty of controllers that just used battery voltage all the time.