Starter Motor
 

I have it removed from the bike.

http://i.imgur.com/jngZu.jpg

I want to connect it to a power source directly to see if it works.

There is only this one "connection" I can make to the motor:

http://i.imgur.com/za1c9.jpg

Where do I hook up the other connection?

To the body of the starter.

I would take off the oring and clamp the jumper cable on the mounting nose. And hold the starter tight, they like to jump off tables, and out of hands, and get destroyed when they hit the floor. You drop one, you crack the magnets

Rod

There was a spark and it shorted out the power supply I was using (no damage).

How big a supply. Small bike starters can draw over 100 amps inrush, 30 running free. One for a liter bike can be 200, 300 or more amps inrush, 75 amps running free. Your battery charger is not going to cut it.

Rod

Well they do take a fair bit of current to turn, so I'd expect a spark caused by large inrush current. How big is the power supply? It might not have shorted, just overloaded. The case is negative, that lug is positive. Make sure you're clamping only to the outer part of the lug and its not touching the casing.

I'm using a 350W power supply unit from a computer.

(edit) After a reread this sounded a bit abrupt but wasn't meant to be....... but I cant find better words at the moment.

You realize the potential of what you are playing with.... right?

Why do you need to do this off the bike anyways? It already has everything you need.

No... :confused:

I have the whole bike stripped for a all around cleanup and engine rebuild. Just trying to see how stuff works.

I'm not sure the PSU is enough. Use some jumper cables from a car battery. Inrush current on a starter can be huge and the PSU wires are quite small. Also, note that the PSU's 350W is spread across the 12 and 5V rails. You can't get 350W from the 12V rails alone, maybe 200 or so tops. The label on the unit will tell you what it can do.

Don't have access to a car battery. I'll try it hooked up to the bike's battery tomorrow.

Great :)