[COLOR="DarkRed"]so to test the thermostat i put wires together and tak a oms reader to it ... ? correct? and that will tell me if that is bad or heater.[/COLOR]
No you do not put the wires together.
You keep them apart and then you put a meter lead on each wire to measure the parts resistance.
Then you are measuring through the one wire and through the part and back through the other wired.
The defrost thermostat should read 0 ohms (closed) when it is frozen.
Note: It opens (infinite ohms) just above freezing.
The defrost heater should read approximately 20 ohms.


A couple things to watch when measuring ohms and continuity
1. Always remove power from the machine otherwise you could blow your meter.
2. Always disconnect at least one side of any device you are checking. This eliminates the possibility of measuring an alternate/parallel circuit path.
3. When checking for closed contacts and continuity use the lowest scale (Usually 200 ohms). Then try higher scales. This scale is 0 to 200 ohms so if the device you are measuring is 300 ohms this scale would show an open circuit which it is not, you are just measuring outside the scale's dynamic range.
4. When you start always short the meter leads together. This will tell you that the meter is working and if there is any 0 offset.

There is a good STICKY at the start of this forum about it's use.