Mercury 25 HP idle with primer only

[mcrock]

So I have a 2000 Mercury 25 hp 2 stroke outboard that I have been trying to get going again following my brothers antics of flipping the boat and swanping it some time back. I did all the standard measure some time back following its imersion and got it running again, sort of. It starts and runs ok but only with the primer engaged. We have taken it out an ran it on the lake, but can only get to about 1/2 power. Just did a complete rebuild on the carborator, cleaned all ports and all looked good (2d time doing that).

I should note that when bringing it back to life, the reed valve was tampered with and I have always wondered if that could be a contributer to the issue.

The carb is a model WMC53 if that helps.

Appreciate any assitance!