325 Trail Boss wont start

My friends 2000 325 Trail Boss with 155 hours hadn’t been run in 8 months, we put fresh gas in it and tried to start it with no luck. I sprayed starter fluid in it and it started right up and ran as long as I sprayed the fluid in it. So we pulled the carb and cleaned it, once put back together and made sure gas was getting to the carb, it was, tried to start and nothing, tried the starter fluid still not even a pop?. We checked for spark , it was strong and blue. Checked valve clearances and timing, all was good. Checked compression, it was 75-85 psi, which I had read is probably close because there is an automatic decompression circuit on the exhaust valve. If anyone has any idea on what else it could be please let me know, thanks. Oh yea almost forgot, the spark plug cap must have small hairline cracks in it because it was arching from the cap into the frame when I was testing for spark, wrapped it with rubber tape and all was good.