Appliances and testing ?

I've been parting out my appliances/ parts on ebay. Question I have is testing motors when taken out. Been watching videos on you tube on how to do it but they don't really dumb it down enough. Is they a way to wire a power cord from a computer or washer to the connector then plug it into the motors plug in or is it better to just connect the power cord to the terminals?

Becarefull, I found out (the quick 'lightning bolt way') that some moters have a switch in them.
So once a motors up too speed the switch closes and then electricity can flow out a seperate wire to something else.
Don't be that 'Something else'.

I this case I think it was a washing machine or clothes dryer.

Since the motors use a lot of electricity during their startup up time, its pretty much usig all the power it can get.
Now, in the case of the dryer. Theres a big electricity draw from the heating element too.
The wall socket cannot power the element at the same time as the motor starts up.

So they add the switch to the motor, once its up to full speed. The switch closes and lets electricity flow to the element.

In my case, the motor started up, ran for a second and a extra wire that was not connected to the power wires suddenly became live and since it was touching the steel bench, it earthed to the bench thru a very large bright white spark with a loud bang.

Oh, those contacts have a really nice Silver disc as the contact. Chunky.

**** thats good to know. Kind of why i have not tried it yet. Trying to figure out the safest way.