1989 Force 125 starting issues

Hello folks,

i have a force 125 1989 model had it for a few year apart from eating the petrol I've never had a problem with it until now..

my issue is this,

i went to my boat last week after not being up for about 2 month due to work, I tried to start it but to not joy, what's happening is the cog from the starter motor kept coming up but not going back down, also my neutral cable is getting extremely hot the the point it's smoking after about 10 seconds, I have a fuel pump but it goes off when turning the key to start, I thought it must be due to dirty connections so I've replaced both terminals and cleaned the connections with a wire brush but engine going down to earth, the fly wheel turns when trying to start just very slow, the battery is brand new which I know means nothing but there big truck battery's I have 2 but both do the same so I'm putting that as not the issue. Could it be a the starter motor being sticky to get it up to speed or something else, thanks for any advice

These starters over time, the dust from the brushes falls down into the bottom of the starter.
These are easy to clean.
The bendix(cog) rides on screw threads(worm gear).
The threads need to be greased from time to time.
I use spray White Lithium on the worm gear.
That will help make the bendix drop.

Be very careful when taking apart the starter.
The screws inside get corroded and can break easily.
PB Blaster, or WD40 will help.

The pics are a starter that was working, very poorly but working.
The springs were soft and weak from getting too hot.

Thanks mate, I was confident it was the starter motor but I also asked my friend he said something about the starter solonoid or the engine earthing point was bad, I have a video of it starting but no way of uploading it to show you on here

You need 5 posts to upload pics.