I’m guessing that if the tank and lines were full of crud, so is the carb. I doubt that shutting off the primer is your problem, more likely jets in the carb are blocked. If the engine fails to run properly after replacing the primer you’ll probably have to have the carb properly cleaned and rebuilt. Those old Suzuki engines are true mules and if properly maintained will outlast 99% of the engines out there. I should warn you that you have a 2-cycle engine and using ether to start it will quickly ruin it, as you have no oil in ether to lubricate the internal parts. I would mix up some 50/1 fuel and put some in a small bottle to put in the carb to start.