I finished my 1972 CT rebuild.  Got it sight unseen and not running, replaced pretty much everything including points.  I have gas and spark, new top end with good compression but it will not fire.  Thought it might be poor timing job by me. But also realized that maybe I should Have a battery, clearly that is missing.  Do I need a battery to kick start a CT2?  Any other ideas? 

Do not need battery, spark proves that.
 I have a ‘73 CT & don’t remember timing spec but like all two strokes it’s slightly before top dead center. That’s pretty important as too early and it kicks back and backfires , if spark occurs at top dead or after very difficult to start
 Beyond than that I’d look at spark plug 
   Dry ? No gas is getting there  = bad crank seal/ carb problem etc
    Wet ? Flooded with gas & needs drying out. Sometimes if it’s been sitting for a long time there’s old gas and oil in base so that’s getting flung up against the spark plug and it just won’t ignite . 
 The air / gasoline  mixture will only ignite in a pretty narrow range too much of one or the other and no go. 
 

Thanks, I replaced all seals tried the OEM carb with a rebuild and a aftermarket one, same poor results. Towed behind a truck to pop start,  every 20’ or so it would sputter.  Anyone have a link to a good video to time this thing?  

Be careful without a battery. Really easy to blow light bulbs if it does start.

Maybe a little of heresy; but some starter fluid will tell you if it's a timing issue, if it wont start after a spray of starter fluid then the timing is off or it's not sparking under compression. If it starts and runs a few seconds on starter fluid, then dies, the fueling is where I'd look.

As always agreeing with MarkT. You'll want a battery sooner or later, save some bulbs and put one in first.

Thanks, yup it will not start with starting fluid either....i replaced the points as a maint. item new ones look cheap compared to the OEM which were in good shape so i put the old ones back in.

What color wire comes from the points so i can figure out when thy just start to open?

It’s the black wire going to your coil you can download the service manual from the library 

Good looking bike clean your original points really good and set the gap at 15 thousands and you should be close enough to see if you have spark also do you have a new spark plug 

Also if you still don’t get spark unplug your ignition switch more pictures will help 

I have a very good spark visually checked out of the bike and verified with a spark indicator while installed.  Wondering if I reconnected the leads correctly.  Colors except for the green and red striped one seemed pretty obvious.  Anyone see anything out of place? Still won’t start even with starting fluid.  Gapped points to 0.013 best I could, dial indicator will come tomorrow to find TDC and back off.