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

[Diesel911]

I go with draining the tank.

Just drive it till the fuel level is low. When you are replacing the hose, it is a good time to remove the fuel tank screen and the O-ring and clean or replace the screen.

One end of the outlet hose is crimp clamped onto the fuel tank screen assembly. If you grind or file off that clamp and get the hose off there is just a normal hose jagg under it. Just replace it with some generic fuel hose that is made for diesel and use whatever your favorite type of screw clamp is.

Find some threads on removing the fuel tank screen.

300TD tank strainer

[lance760t]

Thanks. The screen was cleaned about a year and less than 1K miles ago per the service records (supply hose replaced at the same time), which is why I was hoping to avoid draining the tank just to replace the return line.

[Clemson88]

If you don't drain the tank you're going to make a mess.