First post, here we go!

Recently acquired an 84 ATC200ES, and having an electrical issue of sorts.

Currently no battery in the bike, but when I pull the cord there's spark on the first haul and none on the second or third. If I wait 5 secs or so, the same thing happens again, spark on first pull and not after.

I have pretty much ruled out a bad ground (cleaned all ground points, jumper cable from neg terminal on battery to plug, and no difference).

Any ideas before I start hauling the trike apart?

 

Check the pulse coil on the end of the cam. I had a stator coil go bad on an ES but while checking things had changed the pulse coil. When fitted with a new stator coil it was sparking iregularly and I had to get the distance from pulse coil to magnet down a bit to get it to work properly.