I'm trying to set my TPS on a 22re and i can't get my readings to be right. i get from 12.5 to 8.7. my ohms reader has setting 200, 2k, 20k, 200k and 20m, which one do i put it on? does it matter if the positive and negative on the pins? help me please

pos neg doesnt matter with OHMs.
12.5 to 8.7 what? or is it just 12.7 ohms?
If it is just 12.7 Ohms, put your meter to the lowest setting that prevents the measurement from going over, kinda like the price is right. So in your case, 200 OHMS is the lowest becasue you will never be able to read 12 ohms in a 2000 scale using an analog meter.
Is your meter digital, or analog? I am guessing digital and has 3 or four places on the screen with one number to the right of thedecimal point.

I have some tips on how to use an ohm meter to test a TPS on my web page. One good tip is to go visit your local electronics shop (like Radio Shack) and buy a couple of resistors of known value and then use the meter to read the resistance and verify that you are getting a reading that makes sense. That way you have eliminated one unknown from the equation, so if you have a 1000 ohm resistor you know the reading on the meter should be something close to 1000 ohms (plus or minus the resistor's tolerance). So on the 200 (ohm) scale, it should read infinite or off scale, on 2K (2000 ohms), it should read 1.000, and so on.

The one thing with an ohm meter is that you will always get a reading, be it 0, infinite or something in between. The trick is getting the *correct* reading.

Make sure you're testing the right pins. Polarity doesn't make a differene (red/black) but you can get reads from at least 3 of the pins there..

Off the top of my head peak resistance is around 6k, so you should probably use the 20k range on your meter.

i still can't set the tps right. from looking from the instructions its the bottom 2 pins. the reading i get from it is still the same.

what is a sign of a bad tps?

Some symptoms listed on my web page:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/TPS/index.shtml#Troubleshooting

The bottom 2 pins sound like IDL and E2, if so, that is the important reading, without that the ECU never know the throttle is closed, so it won't enter the stable idle mode.