Removing Fuel Tank on 22

R

Rob & Karen

New member
I need to do some work on my bilge pumps that will require the removal of my port side fuel tank. The boat is now 10 years old and the tanks are plastic. My concern is removing the hoses without damaging the tank. Can anyone offer any specific advice (tools, techniques, etc.) on how to handle the hoses? Thanks.

Rob
 
The larger fill hose is the only challenge, I would warm it up carefully or park that side in a sunny spot and see if you can work it loose after freeing up all other connections to the tank. I ended up just cutting and replacing ours after failing to do the above in the winter. They are a bit of a challenge. The vent hoses and fasteners were not a big deal at all.

Greg
 
I removed both tanks from my 2001, 22 about 6 years ago to clean them out from a fuel contamination (water) problem. I don't know if your design is the same on the newer 22 boat but after trying all sorts of alternatives I think I ended up un-bedding the fuel fillers from the gunnels and pulling them up and unhooking them that way. The filler hose on mine was very stiffly belted and very short, a difficult combo! I would advise you to try everything else before resorting to my solution.
 
I just removed both of my tanks on Carolina Breeze (Angler 22). Rebedded the King Starboard boards around the tanks and replaced feeder fuel hoses. The best advice I could give on removing old hoses from barbed fittings is to use something (screwdriver, plies etc) to PUSH the hose off the fitting. Pulling on them didn't work for me. Carefully heating them like was mentioned earlier would help too. Hope that helps. Good luck...
 
Cutting the filler hoses for removal is fine. The problem I encountered was trying to re-install them. My filler hoses were only about 8 inches long as I recall and very thick walled and stiff. Once I started them on the tank pipe I couldn't bend them enough to maneuver them onto the fill pipe. It was like trying to connect two pipes that were 3 inches apart with a stiff hose that was 8 inches long. Heating would help to some extent probably and a soapy lube film wouldn't hurt either. It was the toughest part of the whole deal as I recall. Like plumbing under the sink!
 
Removing the filler hoses is the hardest part of removing the fuel tanks. I used a variety of pry bars and small pieces of wood as fulcrums to try pry the hose up off the filler necks, which are much longer than they may seem to be. This did not work that well. I tried greasing the hoses but they are on so tight and have so little elasticity that I could not get much between the filler neck and the hose. I found the most useful tool was a pair of plumbers pliers resting on a block of wood which allowed me to grip the pipe hard and lever the hose up at the same time. Worst job I have done on the boat. I would avoid cutting them out as putting new ones on might be very difficult. Although you could perhaps heat up the new ones so they were more flexible before you put them on. Horrible job. My sympathies.
 
I was going to do something that required getting behind the fuel tank. I tried various methods to get the filler hose off. When these didn't work I gave up and did something else.
 
I've been thinking about ways to get behind the port gas tank in order to install a bilge hose for years without removing the gas tank. The thought of removing the tank immediately discourages me. There's no other way other than removing the tank, correct?

I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet one year.
 
Jazzmatic, we put in the bilge pump overboard fitting and hose, without removing the tank on the Starboard side. On our boat the Starboard lazaretto is open in the back. Could easily fish the hose in there, and put the nut on the back of the thru hull...Thru the Lazarette.
 
Thanks Bob. I'll have to remove the cover and take a look. That's what's been holding me back all this time. I want to actually tee off the existing thru hull that connects to the fish box drain in the lazerette. Maybe I'll be able to do that after all without removing the gas tank. Fingers crossed.

Thanks again.

Peter
 
This post may be a little late to help some of you but might help someone in the future. I have removed the fuel tanks in my 2001 CD 22 with dual Honda 50's a couple of times. Yes the filler neck hose is short, stiff and hard to deal with. First thing I do is take out the floor. Then the protective cover plate and floor brace. Then the side (facing towards the bilge) floor brace. Loosen clamps at the bottom of the filler and vent hose. Then undo the hold down strap. Now I am able to twist the tank 90% out of its nesting place still hooked up to the hoses. Raise the end closest to you bending the two hoses somewhat and using a pry bar (or heal bar) at the end of the hose prying up. It does help to twist the hose or rotate the tank at the same time. I did it by my self but having help at this point would be nice.
Also I had enough room behind my port tank for a bilge hose. Hope this helps someone.
 
I concoure with bearnuff, his technique works great when I took off both tanks to clean out the gas.

I found that putting the tanks back in was not that hard if you think out of the box. Reversing the whole re-install works better if you don't fight the hoses. I removed the hoses and installed them in reverse.

Get your tanks in place, and install the hoses (fuel and vent) on the tank nipples first. Then push the hoses into the feeder nipples on the boat. Seems like a Mr Obvious sort of thing, but it's easy to forget that the hose end at the filler cap can also be removed. The vent line is easy either way.

Hope ya'll are enjoying working on your CD's in the off season as much as I am....LOL.
 
I replaced my filler hoses last summer after one failed. I found that detaching the filler port from the hull helped a lot. The filler hose makes an S bend from the fill on the hull to the tank inlet. Releasing the hull filler port releases the pressure on the bend. Once the fill hose is released from the tank inlet, the fill hose is pulled out and installed via the hole in the hull where the filler port mounts.

I also found that my fill hoses were a bit too long (I assume the factory did this). This caused the S bend to be more of a bend than necessary and was where the filler hose split. Shortening the hose about 3 inches straightened the S and made it a lot easier to reinstall the hose. That 1.5" fuel inlet hose does not like to bend very far on a small radius.
 
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