Engine of a different kind

[robbrooks]

I know this may be a long shot, but hopefully there are some Qualcast 35s petrol lawn mower owners on here. My mower refuses to start after a long period of storage (4 or 5 years). I've changed the carburetor thinking it could be this. My carburetor linkages don't work from the switch after removing the carb. I'm now think the problem may be electrical on top of the carb linkages? How do you check for a spark at the plug? Hopefully someone on here may have one of these mowers and knows how to bring it back to life? Its never been used very much and all the belts look new!