Here's my 1980 Ducati Darmah SSD:
This bike has been stored in a garage since 1993, when I got it. It starts up but runs rough and only holds an idle somewhat. The bike has only 4915 original miles. The odd thing about this bike is the speedometer, which only goes up to 80 mph. It should go faster than that, but back in 1980 there was an energy crisis and speedlimits nationwide were 55. Obviously they weren't familar with gas prices where they now stand.
The mufflers are Silentium (couldn't the Italians think of a better name?) with baffles that are held in place with hex bolts. Do people run these bikes with the baffles out? On the track, perhaps?
I know the Contis (and 40mm Carb upgrades) are much more sought after, but for street riding I probably don't need them.
I cleaned up all the carb parts thoroughly with standard degreaser in an ultrasonic bath. I set the carb settings (throttle stop and mixture screws) to 1 ½ turns out. Off hand I see nothing else wrong, though perhaps I should invest in a carb rebuilt kit:
I know the recommended plugs are NGK, right now the plugs are Bosch. I will get the B6HS or B5HS they recommend. The B6 will do, but the B5 is a hotter plug.
The left side (back cylinder) seems to be hardly running at all. It barely gets warm compared to the front cylinder, so I am effectively running on one cylinder.
I had a 1978 Darmah that had this problem and it turns out the problem was the camshaft stuck in backwards so it was firing on the exhaust rather than the compression stroke. I sure hope I don't have that problem as it will be a lot of extra work to solve this.
I'm hoping to have this bike ready for the Vintage Days of Mid Ohio at the end of July.
