Replacing Water Heater Hoses - 2003 Mk2

[glenndesmo]

Hi,

We have a 34 Mk2 ( 2003 ) with the Universal 35 with the water heater under the starboard seating arrangement forward of the sink/galley.

The hoses appear to disappear inside the engine compartment in a sleeve , then magically appear at the water heater,

1. Do we need to remove the galley floor to access the hoses ?

2. Is the sleeve just a short section and we would have to manually guide the hoses to the heater?

Any suggestions on replacing these hoses would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Glenn

[Stu Jackson]

You can't remove the galley sole.  The Critical Upgrades provides a link to how I did my hose replacement on my Mark I and there has been discussion by others with Mark IIs on this work.

Hot water heater hose replacement UNDER THE GALLEY SOLE

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3769.0.html

[Ron Hill]

Glenn : I'm sure that your hot water hoses are replaced just Like we do in the MK 1.  Look at Stu's write up!!

Any time you have to replace hoses or wiring that disappear, I use the old one (wires or hose) as a tracer and WIRE the new one to the old one and pull it thru.

A few thoughts

[dfloeter]

Ok, I can add to this.  I just went through this with my 1996 Mark 2 and it was not easy.  From all the other written experiences I expected to pull the hoses through with little issue.   Those hoses would not budge.  After 10 3.5" holes were bored in the sole I had the problem licked.

The issue was caused by the original hoses having been run through tight and short sections of pvc pipe glassed under the sole.  No way were those hoses pulling through and they are still under the sole.  There was also a hose clamp in the middle of a hose run guaranteeing its existence.   There Needing to leave so much of the original hoses behind, the factory drilled holes on the port side of the engine space was occupied.  Fortunately there was room on the other side of the engine compartment to run the new hoses.  I bored new holes next to the engine beds, snaked a messenger line and pulled new hose through.

Warren at Catalina was very helpful through this process.   I was impressed with his willingness to communicate.  Apparently my boat is very unusual.

Good luck.

[glenndesmo]

Thanks for the replies...

Do you have any pictures of the installation?

Looking over the boat yesterday the original hoses come straight out of the water heater then disappear and I am concerned they are not going to pull through easily.

Did you find feeding the hoses through the heater side and pulling from the engine bay would work better?

Regards
Glenn

[Noah]

On my MKI they just fed easily from the engine side. No chaser line needed. Your mileage may vary on MKII.

[Ron Hill]

Glenn : Boat year and hull #!!

[glenndesmo]

Hi,

We have a 2003 and hull number is 1639.

Lastly what replacement hoses did you use for the reduced diameter of the thermostat housing?

I don't see these on any part diagrams with Universal or Catalina Direct.

Regards
Glenn

[dfloeter]

What a fun job this has been.  Snaking the new hose through was certainly made easier by accessing the undersole space through my many holes.  After drilling a new set of 2" holes to starboard of the engine beds just like the originals on the other side, I used a couple of fiberglass electricians snake rods to run a string from under the galley to the new holes.  The new hose is regular and good Gates ⅝" heater hose and it barely fit through the tight spot just in front of the engine space.   I pulled from the front to rear with the pull string tightly stitched through holes drilled in the end of the hose to make the end small enough to get through the restricted spot.  After clipping out all the old hose that could be reached to make room I pushed enough hose up by the bilge pump past the thru hulls and through the bulkhead to the water heater to allow some movement of the heater.  The double run used about 25' of hose.  Once happy with the hose install I set into filling some of those holes.  With a router rabbet bit I cut rabbets deep enough to recess rounds cut from the original vinyl covered plywood flush with the sole.  I did epoxy coat the hole edges and the filler pieces before setting the fillers in place.  This was probably overkill but easy.  And now it's ready for new vinyl.   
This job became much larger than expected but that has certainly happened before and will happen again. 

[Ron Hill]

Guys : I protected my water heater hoses by sliding some 3/4" pipe insolation on them.  I was worried that there might be some sharp fiberglass chards on the hull under the floor - that I couldn't see!!

A thought

[KWKloeber]

what replacement hoses did you use for the reduced diameter of the thermostat housing?

I don't see these on any part diagrams with Universal or Catalina Direct.

Why not list your engine in the sidebar signature when asking engine questions?


See the techwiki ENGINE > COOLING (3rd item on the list.)

The reduced heater hoses are not installed by Universal — they were a factory mod by replacing the OEM thermostat bypass hose on the engine as it was supplied by Universal.

[dfloeter]

Shoot, I should have read all of that 101 topic before I launched into the hose replacement.   The last post from Jim Lucas was spot on and might have saved me some time.   

[Stu Jackson]

Shoot, I should have read all of that 101 topic before I launched into the hose replacement.   The last post from Jim Lucas was spot on and might have saved me some time.

Dietrich, thanks for your honesty.     Yours is an example of the old proverb of leading a horse to water...to which we've appended: but ya can't make 'em read it.  :D:D

[dfloeter]

Well, I walked into that one didn't I.  Point taken.