Sorry, I should have been more specific. I was talking about the $28 resistor.
Did you test that transistor out of circuit?
You're correct that you should be able to read from .400-.700V one way, but not the other. And yes, that's volts, not ohms. It's called a voltage drop. It's the amount of voltage needed to get the diode to "open the floodgates" and allow electrons to pass through. Such a small amount (.01?) is odd. If you have a known good replacement, meter it the same way and see if it does the same thing.