300SD Fuel Return Hose to Tank Replacement

[lance760t]

Hi All,

New to the forum and proud owner of a new (to me) '84 300SD. Slowly going through the car to take care of deferred maintenance. Currently I'm in the process of replacing all the rubber fuel lines. The rubber return line going into the tank (the short hose that clamps onto the hard line on one end and screws into the bottom of the tank on the other) is either original or very, very old so I want to replace it. The supply line (from the in-tank strainer) was recently replaced by the prior owner (from receipts and confirmed with visual inspection) so leaving that one for now.

My question is, do I need to drain the tank to replace the RETURN line (ie, does it terminate inside the tank above the fuel level or below)? I've done copious searches and watched a bunch of videos and every one of the videos/instructions is for replacing BOTH lines from the tank so obviously the tank needed to be drained for the supply line since it picks up at the bottom of the tank. I'm not touching that one at this time...just the return line.

Sorry if this has been addressed in a thread somewhere already, I did spend a while searching before posting.

Thanks!
Lance