W124 '88 260E Coolant overflow drain hose

[rickmoore49]

Just did an early spring service on this warhorse (about to turn 300,000 miles) and managed to break the drain hose coming from the coolant reservoir. From the looks of it this must be the original hose from 19+ years ago! It has been "fossilized" (hard as a rock - no flexibility at all) from all the heating and cooling under the hood over the years and literally broke off right at the fitting on the reservoir tank.

I've got replacement hose but I don't know how to get the old hose out from the drain hole in the fender well where it goes through a large grommet and dumps any coolant that overflows out a drain hole in the bottom of the front fender panel. No amount of pulling will budge the thing - is it attached to the drain hole fitting coming out of the bottom? And it seems the Mercedes engineers kept this drain separate from the water drain that goes out just below the battery. I guess they wanted to be careful where any radiator coolant went and what it might touch along the way.

I searched on a number of terms and didn't find anything elsewhere on the board. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.