Do I sell my truck because of a bad piece of fuel hose?

I bought a 1987 Ford truck with the 6.9 diesel, it drove home fine but sat too long and the fuel tanks were full of rust, the pickups broken, etc.  I replaced one tank completely, cleaned the other and replaced the pickup, replaced the fuel selector valve, the lines from the selector valve to the tank, lift pump, fuel filter, etc, but now I am stuck.  It has a Racor fuel filter added (near the driver's side hood hinge) and the rubber lines to it are rotten, but it is beyond my ability to disconnect the lower end of the hose (opposite where it attaches to the filter), so it has been sitting for months.  It has a banks turbo kit and a bunch of gauges and trailer wiring so there is a bunch more stuff crammed into that area than is supposed to be, so even looking at a different one doesn't necessarily help.  I think I would drive it if that was fixed, but I don't know how to fix it and it seems silly to just have it sit there and collect spiders and drip oil on the ground.

Just route a new hose to wherever you need and abandon the old stuff in the frame. 

If you can't get to something, remove whatever is necessary until you can. 

Use the old hose to fish the new hose along the same path.  Attach the new to the old and pull it through.  You can also fish a steel wire down the old hose and and attach it to the new hose, pull the wire and old hose.  An electrician or plumber can do this for you in minutes.  

Just disconnecting the hose on both ends and putting in a new one all the way back to the selector valve is a good idea, the problem is I can't even reach the clamp (and can barely even see it) to remove the hose.  If I started just removing everything that's in the way I would probably end up having to pull the steering column, brake booster, and maybe the hood and front fender.  I thought an IDI Ford would be easier to work on, but I think this one has been too molested I think.  The diesel Mercedes I have owned were far easier to work on.

Cut it and relocate the filter to a better location where you can reach all of the fittings. Then you don't have to move anything except the filter. 

Racor filters aren't that expensive. Just abandon the filter and the line and mount a new filter in a better location. 

Toyman nailed it. Cut it where you have access, route it wherever is safe and convenient.

Inside the frame rail is the safe spot.  If you can't fish a new one through, the safety of the routing is on you.  

Any pictures of what you are dealing with?  With all you have done it would be a pity to stop.

It's somewhat hard to get a picture, but the problem is I don't know how to disconnect the other end of the lines attached to the Racor filter so I can either eliminate the filter or put new lines in.  I could connect the two lines together just to get it running, but one of the lines is too rotten to last long.

Is taking it to a repair shop out of the question?  Sometimes a person has to let a professional take over.

stuart in mn said:

Is taking it to a repair shop out of the question?  Sometimes a person has to let a professional take over.

That's what I was wondering from the beginning of this thread. 

I could take it to a shop, but the truck is modified (not by me) enough I'm not sure many would want to work on it, it would be expensive, and it's too old a vehicle to pay someone to maintain, I think the money would be better spent on a different truck in that case.  But, I can't do it myself because I don't even really know how to look at it and figure out where to start taking stuff apart either.