[Fr. Frank]

Your Seafari is a 20' like mine. Pull the fuel tank cover out of the floor, and everything is right there, easy access. Remove the fuel feed hose from the fuel pickup fitting on the tank and then remove the fuel fitting, if yours is not a welded fitting. When you remove the fitting, the pickup tube into the tank comes out with it. You can easily see if there's a problem and make any necessary repairs. If your fitting is welded, remove the hose and gently blow high-pressure air down into the tank to blow out any temporary obstruction. Buy new gaskets for the fuel sender, remove the sender and visually inspect the tank. You can also use the sender opening to siphon out any remaining fuel in the tank to inspect for loose debris. If you find loose debris, there are two ways to remove it. One is the terrycloth shop-towel-on-a-wire method, and slowly and carefully swabbing out the whole tank. The other is to remove the tank and wash it out yourself. You can wash out the tank with water and Dawn dish washing detergent. After doing this twice, then blow a hand-held hair dryer into the tank to dry it completely before re-installing the tank.

This is very important: Install all new fuel supply hoses and filters regardless of whether you're re-installing the fuel tank, or just doing a minor clean-up. Don't re-use any old hoses. Consider replacing the vent and fill lines as well.

I put an inline 30 micron particle filter on mine just 6 inches from the pickup. Then my fuel line goes into a 10 micron water-separating Sierra filter with a water drain on it. From there it goes to the fuel bulb and into another (inside the cowling) inline 30 micron particle filter to catch any degraded hose debris.

You can literally do all of this in about 4 hours. The hardest part is removing the fuel tank if it is needed. Bring a cooler on board, and lots of terry shop towels. Better yet, bring a friend who will work for beer and snacks (or Coca Cola). Having somebody to talk with and complain to while working can be a real help.