I bought a '78 Red and White SD Darmah in 1980, had it for 4 years and was my initiation into the world of Ducati. Loved the bike, especially the way it pulled like a train from low revs, but I had stretched myself as a 21 year old too much to buy it so that I struggled to keep up with the servicing etc., especially as it was my only transport. Mine had the 32mm carbs and Lanfranconi silencers, my friend had a Black and Gold one with the 40mm carbs and Conti pipes and he is always saying his was faster. Problems I remember were the fuse box under the headstock prone to water and fuses coming loose, clutch cables snapping, and both our bikes had the Campagnolo wheels and the rear cush drive failed on both.
Ah... the rear cush drive it also failed for me with the FPS wheels. The accepted solution was to add a couple of steel pegs through the cush drive into the hub. For the recent refurb I also re-threaded the bolt holes and added a touch of red thread lock plus some serrated washers. It was these bolts coming loose that allowed the cush to move & get progressively worse.
Nice. Thanks for the tips everyone. Mine is being pieced together bit by bit and any tips / tricks or hacks are welcome
Spent most of today sorting through my photos and lo & behold I found plenty from the Darmah build some of which may be helpful for you. As mentioned I completely rewired the bike because the standard loom was awful with it all been crammed into the small space behind the headstock. I kept the loom placement pretty much the same but gave it a lot more space by junking the air filter boxes. I fashioned a new block connector plate (and kept the same number & type of blocks) and in the extra space fashioned another metal box for holding the wire slack, flasher unit etc plus you may also notice a bus bar. I used this for the bikes earth and ran all earths back to this as it saves having to scratch frames etc to get a decent earth. The loss of the air filter box allowed it's mounting lugs to be used for the coils And I'm not sure what ignition system your engine builder is thinking of using but I installed an Electronik Sachse unit was mounted on the rear air filter brackets
One other issue I can think of is the drive chain cutting into the swingarm & engine casing. There are mounting points in the frame for an off the shelf protector that sits underneath the swingarm and protects the casing but there is none available for protecting the swingarm. There is one available for the SS swingarm but as this differs from the Darmah I made my own up from a bought tube of some sort of tough plastic - I forgot what it was. To lessen this it is wise to have the swingarm pivot on the eccentric at the bottom as this drops the top of the swingarm out of the way of the chain.
Also have a look at this thread https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/chain-slider-for-the-bevels.96126/#post-2080685
