After leaving the outboard motor sitting for one year, I try to start
it today, and all I hear is tick,tick,tick... (and this is not the
sound of pistons moving around). What has gone wrong?

It is a 1995 Mercury 115hp 2-stroke outboard motor. Last winter, I
winterized it by running it on treated fuel for five minutes, spraying
fogging oil into the sprark plug holes (then working the pistons), and
then leaving a full tank of treated fuel in the fuel tank. The fuel is
still good because I have used all of them in my car for the last month
without any problem. Therefore, I know the fuel is not the problem.

I have followed the instruction in the boatowner manual to start the
motor (put the motor upright, put the lower unit in a bucket of water,
turn on the battery switch, check the kill switch, hand squeeze the
fuel pump ball to hard, hold down the throttle button, turn the
throttle-lever up all the way and then move it back to 1/4 throttle,
turn the power switch and hold it down to start), and I have tried this
for a couple times in two days. All I heard was tick,tick,tick...

Does this have something to do with leaving the motor unused for one
full year?

Does this have something to do with the fact that I didn't spray
fogging oil into the carburetor in last winter? At that time, I didn't
know that the carburetor air inlets are hidden behind the air-silencer;
therefore, I didn't know where to spray.

Does this have something to do with the possibility that the batteries
may not be good enough to work the starter? When I checked the voltage
of the battery right before trying to start the motor, the voltage
looked OK to me (13.24 volt). I stress-tested the batteries last
winter and I found them to be OK (admittedly I am not very good in
doing this). I left them in the boat outdoor through out the winter;
but I re-charged the batteries periodically and checked their voltage
periodically during the winter.

What can cause this problem?

Thanks in advance for any info or suggestion.

Jay Chan