Finegrain:

Thanks for yoru reply. They draw from the same tank and all the plumbing and electrial is hard wired. It usually takes a couple of cranks and fires right up, the running engine did just that, the non-running turns over but will not fire, it sounded to me like plugs but those have been replaced and still same problem.

On myold boat I used to have to spray a little ethanol in the carb when it was cool and damp out. I did not want to do anything like that with this as I know little about outboards and would hate to do any damage.