Well I am buffaloed

Engine won't start.
Back ground: 2012 bought a new rototiller (old one shot) for 95 year old MIL to garden her woes away after the death of her husband. Husky DRT900E (elec. start), did a big garden for her, nice tiller. She canned 40 pints of tomatoes that year. I came down with colon cancer, she went to a care facility, tiller left sitting with gas "on" for 4 years. I knew there would be trouble this spring. Only about 3 hours on the tiller.
No start. No "pop"
1. fresh gasoline (no ethanol)
2. inspected the new, clean looking plug that was not wet. AHA
3. Took carburetor off 4 times, cleaning, poking every orifice, blowing with compressed air, removed and cleaned float valve.
4. Spark plug has spark, even sparks through boot against metal when no plug is connected.
5. Engine briefly starts when spraying starting fluid or gasoline in the carburetor while cranking. Good thing it has 110v starter!
6. Did not soak carb. in solvent, was'nt dirty looking.
This engine is a B&S 200cc, 9.00ft-lbs gross torgue with all the CA compliant stuff.
So why doesn't this engine suck gas? I thought I could smell gas vapor but with all the gas leaking around during assembly and disassembly, who could tell?
I would welcome advice on what I missed. Leo

Depending on what the carb set up is it could well have a jet clogged up. What happens if you hold your hand over the air intake and try to start it. My Troy built tilled did something like that this spring and the main jet was clogged up once I use a torch tip cleaner tool to open it up and sprayed it out real good with carb cleaner it has been running just fine

I've gotten to the point that I use about a whole can of ether on a carb to get it clean. That's after
is has soaked. Carbs these days have such small passages and the tiniest thing throws them all
off whack. They are lucky to have the right fuel mixture when they are running perfectly. I have a
206 on a Troy bilt tiller that runs with the choke half way on and has for years. Something is
sideways in there making it mad.

I find that if I sometimes prime it with fuel in the plug hole it runs long enough to get it over the
hump. I'd pull the plug and put in a couple CC's of gas and then set the choke all of the way on
and hit that starter. You never know.

simply no get gas lookslike if it runs when you shot in top carb. i very seldom mess with cooking anymore through another carb on
it . you are getting gas to carb seen this alot too.

You could possibly have a stuck valve from sitting so long. As Old says see if the engine has any vacuum while holding your hand over the end of the carb with the air cleaner removed..

putting hand over carb inlet results in almost painful suction and a feeble attempt to run. I am soaking the carb tonight in a can of 20 year old carb cleaner I found on an old work bench. Then I will rinse in gasoline or kerosene and use the air hose on it again tomorrow. Makes a guy want to move back to town in a highrise and learn golf! Not!! Leo

OK these are my thoughts....New carbs are just crappy. THEY tried to make them better and THEY made them worse! When you cleaned the float
valve, I assume it was about 1/2" long most of it square shaped and it tapers to a conical point???? Did you look and see if the tip of the
conical point was of the "two-part" type? That is the very tip is made from nylon or some such. Often this type when stored for a long time
with gas will get an indentation ring in the nylon part and it won't allow the valve to drop down to re-fill the float chamber. In any case
I'd get a carb re-build kit anyway. Also, did you take the needle valve out and pinching it between some 000 or 0000 steel wool twist the
needle a number of times to smooth the actual needle part of the valve. Then, while the needle is still out run a VERY fine stiff wire up
through the float valve seat and into the needle valve seating area. Often gunk will builds up in this hard to get at place and is rarely
removed by solvent or even air spray. Do this operation carefully and this should fix it. One last thought, is the carb a gravity feed or
is there a fuel pump? If gravity feed the above procedure is is more important. But check fuel feed either way just to be sure it's getting
gas to the float chamber.

I was reading the Forum further and the comments made by " jeffcat" in the Kohler 12.5 query are very to the point of what I was saying.
Please reead his comments.

I soaked the carb in 20 year old carb cleaner, re tag wired every hole I could find, took the float out and the tiny valve, ran a wire through the hole. Managed to tag wire the very tiny hole near the main inlet? and put it together again, this time I get gasoline smell out the exhaust and the plug gets wet. Early in this fandango, the spark was good, now no spark at all. Suspect I fractured the wire taking it off the plug so many times. Now no pop when spraying gasoline or starting fluid. Suction excellent. Am going to buy a new carb and sparkplug wire. Now figuring out what all I have to take apart to get to the other end of the spark plug wire. Thanks folks. I think a horse and a walking plow would be simpler. Leo

If the plug is wet now, fix the park problem (new plug first) before sinking more $$$ into it.

Before you start tearing anything else apart, you should pull the boot and end off the plug wire and reattach the end to the wire. Good chance that will fix the problem if you did pull it off.