If you have an OEM intake grate, and small hands/arms, then you might can turn the driveshaft from under the hull without removing anything but the spark plugs. It'll be alot easier to turn the driveshaft if you could use both hands though.... like, by removing the jetpump again.
Since you need to have the spark plugs out anyways, go ahead and stick something long down 1 of the spark plug holes and you can see it moving up and down 1 or 2 full strokes should be plenty to confirm there's nothing mechanically wrong with that engine (have somebody else watch if you are under the hull trying to turn the driveshaft.. that's going to be challenging though mark my words!).
I'm speculating here: I'm wondering if 1 of the iginition coils could be bad and the reason for that clicking sound that only occurrs when the spark plugs are in and the coils on? Before trying to turn the engine by hand George, you might want to pull 1 coil off at a time and put the lanyard on to see if it does the clicking sounds or not (pull 1 coil, put the lanyard on and listen for clicks, then pull the lanyard off and put the coil back on and try the next coil and repeat). Just an idea that. I find it very odd that you heard no clicking sounds when you had the spark plugs out and tried to crank the engine over yourself... that is suspicious!
- Michael