Well — with the Holiday cheer only a memory, I decided it was time to tackle the main fuel hose replacement. It took me most of one day to complete the job. As some of you already know from my previous postings, this ’95 U300 that I acquired in November had not been started for perhaps 5-6 years. The main hose was covered with cracks on the O.D along its entire length and was sucking air. I bought 30′ (which was the exact right length, as it turned out) of a cloth-jacketed 5/8″ I.D. — Goodyear product that is compatible with ULSD fuel. I paid $7.68 afoot.
Anyway, if you want to tackle this real PITA project yourself, here are a few tips:
1.) Cut through the old hose that attaches to the top of the tank so you can slip a box-end wrench onto the fitting to crack it loose. It’s almost impossible to get in there with an open-end
2.) Get yourself a brass union, barbed at each end to attach the new hose to the old — which you will use for pulling it through the basement and bulkheads.
3.) Do not use hose-clamps on the union, for you won’t be able to pull the new hose through the last bulkhead opening, which is tighter — just aft of your holding tanks. I know this because I tried the clamps but had to remove them and use safety wire pliers and .060 steel wire to make sure the hose stayed on the 5’8″ union. Make sure you snip off the twisted wire ends and use pliers to bend them parallel to the hose so you have no chance of them slicing up other lines that share the bulkhead opening, as you are pulling through.
4.) Get yourself a drill pump ($10 at Ace Hardware), and with the hose re-connected to the tank, use the drill pump to pull fuel through the 30 feet of hose to your primary filter location. It took less than 20 seconds for the pump to fill up the hose.
It still took me about 5 minutes of using the prime pump on the CAT before I had fuel into the cylinder head. Once it caught it ran rough for about 15-20 seconds and then smoothed right out. After 5 minutes of running I blipped it up to about 1800 rpm a few times, then steadily raised the rpm from the 700 rpm idle up to about 1500 rpm and it responded great.
I ran it for about an hour to let all the temps come up and to check the engine/trans for leaks. Not one drop!
After shutting it down I waited for perhaps 3 minutes and tried a re-start and it lit right up.
I’m thrilled. It’s hard to explain that feeling of satisfaction of having a smooth-running machine after all of the work I’ve been doing on my dream coach. Michael 1995 U300S