[C320-list] Fuel tank replacement

[Mike Mellon]

Just as a note, on LaVida, #324 1996, the fuel tank came out through the 
aft starboard side lazarette hatch, without a problem - close but OK.   
On this boat, the tank is pretty much directly under the hatch.  We had 
to remove the flooring and hold downs covering the tank and the hoses  
We removed it to clean it after temporarily removing the fuel.  Used 
commercial fuel polishing company in SF area with portable fuel 
polishing equipment they could bring right to the dock.

One does have to be mobile enough to get down through the hatch and do 
the work.

Mike Mellon

On 12/15/2020 1:44 PM, Graeme Clark wrote:
> Doug
>
> Short answer: I don't remember but it wasn't a problem - until it came to getting it through to the cabin. You need to take the whole hatch out including the frame, the tank is too big to go through the open hatch when it is in place.
>
> Graeme
> #366, 1996
>
>> On 15 Dec 2020, at 17:58, Doug Treff <doug at treff.us> wrote:
>>
>> All,
>>
>> I've got a bunch of work to be done in my aft compartment this off-season. Need to remove the air conditioner to make some repairs. Also need to replace my dead refrigerator. Gonna be spending lots of quality time in there...
>>
>> My boat is 24 years old. After reading a lot about others whose tanks failed at around the 20 year mark, it seems reasonable to do this job now while I have the opportunity. My concern is that if I skip it, I'll have diesel in my bilge immediately after I bolt all the other stuff back in there. I really don't want to address that rear compartment again if I can get all the difficult jobs done at once. I can't think of a better time to replace the fuel tank than when all the obstacles are removed already.
>>
>> When I bought the boat, we dealt with a diesel leak that turned out to be a leaking sender unit. The problem was easy to fix but the diesel odor that resulted from the leak was difficult to clean up. The entire time I was dealing with that, I feared that the tank itself was leaking. Luckily it wasn't but I don't want to revisit that environmental mess and odor again.
>>
>> What I haven't seen explained, is how does the tank fit past the rudder shaft and quadrant to come out through the access hole on the port side? Do you need to do anything to the quadrant temporarily in order to slide the tank through there? I'm guessing it may slide under the sugar scoop area of the transom to pass by the rudder shaft, but I'd rather not guess.
>>
>> Thanks in advance from others who may have done this. I'm also interested in any other preventative jobs that you suggest while I'm in there. I'm apparently a glutton for punishment.  ;-)
>>
>> --
>> Doug Treff
>> doug at treff.us
>>
-- 
Michael Mellon
45 Ortalon Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
mmellon at cruzio.com
831-425-5583 Home