Smelling Gas

[wavelength]

Gail and I got the deck hatches up and blocked up the console yesterday. We found the filler gas hose rusted through in several places, it was the original (1975) hose.
Hope to get the tank out today after the front passes.

[bigeasy1]

Nice picture,
How does the tank itself look?,hopefully you don't have to replace that as well.
The scary thing,is that there are boats in use with hoses in very bad condition(although hopefully not that bad).

Last year,when i was putting the boat in for it's first time,we filled the tank at a gas station,and then drove over to the ramp.
As my buddy was backing the boat down the ramp,my head was about level with the bilge vent,and i got a very strong smell of gasoline.
We pulled the boat back out,and when i got in,and looked in the bilge,i found around a gallon of fresh gasoline in the bilge.
I had to bring the boat back to the shop, and for the first time in my life,i had to pull the drain plug to drain gas instead of water.

My fill hose looked in perfect condition,but we found a spot way up where it was hidden (naturally) where the hose had a few small cracks in it.

I ended up replacing all of the hose with new alcohol resistant hose.Even hoses that look in good shape can be bad in unseen spots,causing leaks.

Very scary scenario.It's a good thing to replace fill hoses,if you even suspect a tiny flaw.

[Fr. Frank]

Even hoses that look in good shape can be bad in unseen spots,causing leaks. ...It's a good thing to replace fill hoses,if you even suspect a tiny flaw.

Amen to that. I'm in the process of getting my 1979 17' ProLine Pro Sport ready for sale, and one of the first things I did today after reading Matt's post was pull up the gas tank cover. Sure enough, every one of the hoses needs replacing, although the tank is fine.

Thanks, Matt.

[wavelength]

Tanks out and it has to go! The board it sits on is ok but I'm going to replace it and glass it back to the stringers.

[Bushwacker]

Did it corrode thru where all that foam is?

[wavelength]

That corner is at the starboard rear part of the tank. The foam you see I did about a year and half ago when I pushed the tank forward to it's original position. I think over the years (33 of them) water seeped through the deck hatch as none of it was sealed very well when I bought the boat.