more baby steps

still not wanting to start, and remember that when it did it seemed to not always fire on the right cylinder.
more routine tests, this time the ignition coil.
according to the book you short the wires from the coil and check resistance from shorted wires to the spark plug wires.  you should get the same or very similar readings on both sides. I'm not getting any readings. [what, oh, wrong setting on the multimeter]
when I remove the spark plug caps and check continuity on them I get 10 ohms and 8.5 ohms.
when I do the above check of spark plug wires without the caps in place I get 10.3 and 10.4 ohms. (someone on one of the forums I go to for advice says this is a good number for the coil.)
when I install the caps again I get 19.0 and infinity. when I switch the caps side-to-side I get infinity and 19.0.
sounds like a bad cap to me. (and the bad cap was on the right side which has been observed as not firing consistently)
2 suggestions from different forums suggests that my evaluation is likely correct.
ordered some caps (paid a little extra for expedited shipping since they were so cheep) and now I wait again.
if I get lucky the new caps will make it easier to start and resolve the firing on one cylinder problem.