Dave,
There are several tests one can do with an ohm meter to test capacitors. If you simply connect the meter to the
capacitor, it should have infinite resistance(no conduction). It is also very helpful to reverse the leads and watch the needle
as you connect the meter. You will see the needle rise up somewhat and fall again. This tells you the capacitor is
working. When you first connect the ohm meter to the capacitor, you are essentially charging it up with the battery in the meter.
Reversing the leads charges the capacitor in the opposite polarity and what you see on the meter is the current rushing back
in the opposite direction. The higher the ohms scale you use, the larger the blip on the meter. I generally use the x100 or x1000
scale to do this sort of test. Of course one has to use an analog type meter to perform these tests.
Another handy thing to do is to compare the "blip" on a known good capacitor of the same size to one you have in question. If the
capacitor in question has a significantly smaller blip, one could suspect it has less capacitance and likely not good.
A capacitor that shows resistance when connected to an ohm meter tells me it has leakage and not good.
Also, any testing in this manor must be done out of circuit.
It's a good idea to discharge a capacitor before testing it for two reasons:
#1 Your safety
#2 If the capacitor has a high voltage charge, it could ruin an analog meter.
Digital meters have their place but can't do what an analog meter can do in this instance.
All that said, the capacitor is likely bad if the motor runs after you spool it up.