Mariner 60, fresh rebuild no start.

[typhoon]

I have a 60hp Mariner twin outboard I rebuilt the powerhead on in December, it fired right up at that time and held a good idle etc, although I only idled it about 30/45 seconds at that time. Everything was synched well, carbs nice.
Now, I've been trying to start it the last couple of days and she won't run. It's the middle of winter here, so about 5c/ 40f temps.
It will sort of catch, enough to smoke from the exhaust and increase the cranking speed, but it won't light off and run by itself. I've oiled the bores to help compression on the fresh honed bores, the carbs are pulling a very good vacuum (so reeds seem good) and the float bowls have been drained and refilled with good fuel. I've also tried raw fuel down the carbs and Aerostart.
Any suggestions?

Regards, Andrew.

 

[typhoon]

I had a bit of bad luck/luck with it today, recharged the battery overnight, went to start the engine and the starter turned very lowly like the battery was low, then when I let off the key and tried again, starter wouldn't engage. Checked the high current path to the starter, battery connections god, solenoid switching high current, power to terminal on starter....must be starter.
So I pulled the starter off the engine and it was very draggy to turn by hand and had a screeching/scraping sound. Pulled starter apart and there was a bundle of wire around the brushes and commutator. The wire appears to have been wound radially around the wires above the commutator, the other end had a tightly wound wire around it, never seen that before.
So anyway, I theorise that this wire has been there for some time and has probably been causing a low cranking speed, which is bad news for a 2 stroke, they really need high cranking speeds to get port velocity up and reduce stagnant port flow. Combine it with a cold engine and freshly honed cylinders and it sounds plausible.

Regards, Andrew.