Husqvarna YTH2348 - Starting after sitting for a long time

New poster here. I've enjoyed reading this forum over the years, but never made any posts, but I'm in need of some advice.

Background: A few years ago, I bought a Husqvarna YTH2348 with a Briggs engine for $500 from a guy who was moving away and needed to offload it. Right up front, he told me that it would not start without a shot of starter fluid, and that was true. It never started easily. I used the mower for grass cutting and leaf mulching for two seasons and then it just stopped starting all together. I attempted to rebuild the carb, but I could never get it to start and run again. I ran out of time an mental bandwidth to keep messing with such a fussy mower. Fast forward three years, the mower has been sitting idle, gathering dirt and rust under my deck because I just never got the energy tackle the repair.

Now, to the present day. I've decided to either get this thing running again or sell it as salvage. I pulled the hood, seat, and removed the deck and pressure washed the dirt and debris from the chassis. Then I parked it in my garage where I can spend time cleaning and digging into the motor. Yesterday, I pulled the carburetor, spark plugs (2), fuel pump, coils (2), valve covers (2), battery and starter. My plan is to work through a troubleshooting flowchart beginning with battery and working my way through the ignition system.

Engine Start Troubleshooting Flow:
1. Battery voltage: yes/no
2. Spark plugs: firing yes/no
3. Coils multimeter check: within range yes/no
4. Fuel pump pushing gas: yes/no
5. Carburetor (after getting a rebuild) sending fuel: yes/no
 
What else should be in my troubleshooting process? Should I remove the flywheel and sand it down? It's very rusty - see images.



Thanks in advance for any wisdom you can offer. I've seen quite a few posts on here about this particular mower, but none about bringing one back from the dead. I thought it might be an interesting thread for someone else down the line.

Thank you for this response. I got the carb torn down last night and it had apparently gotten full of water at some point during the time it was sitting. Tons of corrosion on all the plates - Lord only knows what debris has gotten into all of the small orifices. The corrosion was so bad I had to drill out the screws on the throttle plates to them to get them removed. At this point, I'm not sure if it would be better to keep trying to rehab the one I have or buy another one from 'flea bay' lol  and take my chances. I'll keep you posted as I move along in this process. Thanks again for your response. 

Heck, you can leave the carb off, spray some starting fluid into the intake and it should kick off momentarily..
 
And yes, any oil movement in the combustion chamber would be good..
 
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