Has anyone replaced the original fuel lines in their 43? How did you access the hose hangers between the center aft fuel tank and the stbd water tank?
For anyone in the future: I was able to reach all the hangers except the forward most 2 by stretching against and over the water tank. The forward most two I was able to get reaching through the opening in the back wall of the engine room where the water tank fill hose passes while stuffed above the stbd motor shaft log. I'm installing a PVC chase for the new fuel lines going back in.
All the engine lines are done. Will do the GenSet lines in a couple weeks. I was glad to find out the CAT C7.1 'self priming' feature works great. Turn the key to on, wait 1 minute, hit start. Both engines fired right up without as much as a burp. The aft line is almost 20 ft long but had no problem priming. Everything went pretty much as planned (very rare). I caught maybe 2 oz of deisel in my drip can when removing lines before I got the plug fitting in. Feed line I blew fuel back into the tank with low pressure air. Return line I capped at the tank end (high point), removed the engine end and capped. Then removed the tank end cap, went back to the engine end and put in the catch can and removed the cap. Easy
Old hoses were Aeroquip 2651. Surprizingly still flexible and no surface cracking. Dated 11-84 (boat was built in 89).
If you haven't thrown them out yet, a lot of those fittings are removable from the hose, they don't look like it but they are.
They are not reusable style (not field installable with the second hex after the swivel nut), and not in condition I would reuse them.