Lighter not lighting

Hey folks I've had my zippo lighter for about 7 years now. So I'd say I'm pretty aware of how to use it, fix it, change it etc. but recently I haven't used it in months and when I picked it up again it was no longer working. Obviously the first thing I did was to change flint and trim the wick but that made no difference. I went ahead and changed the wick completely(and yes I know about the S shape) and still nothing. I tried cleaning some of the carbon build up with zippo fluid and q-tips(though I will admit I didn't clean it thoroughly enough because I ran out of q-tips) but that didn't seem to change a thing. I know everything works perfectly fine because if I prime the wick with some zippo fluid the lighter goes off. I even tried removing the cotton and seeing if the wick would catch fire and it did(obviously). I tried leaving it upside down, on the chimney, then trimming the wick (even though its new) but again nothing changed. So the wick is fine, flint is fine, wheel is fine but together they don't seem to work. The only thing I can think of is that the carbon build up is preventing the lighter from working and it needs a thorough cleaning. Any ideas/tips? Thanks.

Edit: So the issue seemed to be with the wheel, even though it sparked just fine it seems like it just wasn't strong enough. Stretching the spring made the spark a lot bigger and fixed it!