With the raw water exhaust showerheads finally hooked up, I got busy on the next mission-critical system: fuel.
I had new tanks built back in 2013, and I made some custom stainless steel fill tubes in 2016 connecting the pretty OEM chromed bronze Chris Craft fuel fills to the new 420-gallon tank (two 210-gal tanks welded into one unit) in the aft stateroom. Diesel was cheap back then, so I filled the tanks, and in 2014 I partially installed some 1/2″ and 3/8″ stainless tubing from the fuel tank to the engine room bulkhead.
The last bit of work I did on the fuel system was installing the wiring and cutting a hole in that gorgeous helm radio box for the fuel gauge. I had to install the wiring because once the Whisper Wall headliner was installed on the aft deck, wiring would become much more challenging. And I bought a brand new Sunpro classic fuel gauge because…well…Sunpro is an old school American company, and the gauge kinda looks like a classic gauge.
So a lot of the groundwork has been done. I just need to connect lots of bits and pieces together. How long could that take?
On Day One working on the fuel system, I finished wiring the fuel level senders then hooked up the brand new (4 years ago) Sunpro fuel gauge.
12vdc negative wired to both fuel tank senders
I’m being very careful to use isolated grounds everywhere on this boat. I’ve eliminated all “chassis ground” systems on this boat, like the ones you might see on older cars. I want no electric currents flowing through the metal hull.
Fuel sender wiring that’s connected to the Sunpro gauge in the helm radio box came next
Once the wires were connected, I flipped the fuel gauge switch in the helm radio box first to the port tank, then to starboard, but the needle only wiggled a bit on the port side. It didn’t move at all on the starboard. When I tried it the second time, it didn’t even wiggle on the port side.
I checked resistance at the fuel level senders, but they had very different values. This was very strange. Everything was new/unused, but it wasn’t working.
A while back I was listening in on a conversation two diesel mechanics were having about fuel tanks. One of them said that, unlike gas, diesel fuel tanks should have submerged fuel returns so the fuel in the tank doesn’t get aerated by returning fuel. I told the manufacturer in 2013 that my tanks were for diesels (120hp Ford Lehmans, AKA The Wrong Ones), so I assumed they made them properly. But since I was having trouble with my fuel gauge I decided to pull the port return fitting from the tank and see what I’ve got.
I found two things: 1) the port return line bung ended at the top of the tank. There was no tube going to the bottom. And 2) somebody had stolen around 180 gallons of diesel from my port tank.
sonova….
That’s about a grand worth of go-juice at current FJB prices.
3/8″ main propulsion return fitting removed from the port fuel tank…no tube goes to the bottom
On the up-side, I had two spare pickup tubes that fit the 3/8″ NPT return bungs in the tank. Unfortunately, they had 1/4″ NPT ports, and all of the fuel system plumbing fittings I bought were either 3/8″ NPT or 1/2″.
It’s always something.
Spare pickup tubes will work as submerged returns
Main propulsion submerged return fuel lines trimmed for these tanks
I’m waiting for some 1/4″ NPT to 3/8″ NPT adapters to show up so I can finish connecting the fuel return lines to the tank. Meanwhile, I ordered a New Old Stock Stewart Warner fuel gauge to replace the Chinese junk Sunpro gauge that was new but also Dead On Arrival. When the new SW gauge arrived, I was surprised by its heft.
Treacherous “Made in China” Sunpro gauge weighs in at a measley 2.6 oz
Hefty “Made in America” NOS Stewart Warner fuel gauge weighs in at 4.8 oz
Once installed, it was clear that the fuel gauge problem was “Made in China.”
SW fuel gauge installed in the helm radio box, with the selector switch in the neutral (off) position
Switched to the starboard side, gauge accurately reads nearly full
Switched to the port tank, the gauge accurately reflects that rat bastard thieves stole ~180 gallons of fuel
I should note that the bottom of the fuel tank is angled to match the hull, so it’s deeper at the forward end where the pickups and fuel level senders are located. So that ‘slightly less than half a tank’ reading should be interpreted as ‘less than 1/4 tank.’
With the fuel gauge finally reading properly, I stuffed the sender wires into the wire loom under the aft stateroom floor and called it a day.
Should have run the fuel sender wires in the aft stateroom loom before securing it all with cable clamps
Running the sender wire in the aft stateroom cable loom
“Order of operations” is a term I’ve learned a lot about on this refit. I don’t think I did a bad job of it, given that this is my first and only major refit. But in retrospect, I wish I’d run all of the wiring and fuel distribution lines before I installed the engines and floors. Still…it’s better to retrofit while the refit is ongoing than to try and retrofit after the refit is done.
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: On-Engine Fuel Hoses
1969chriscraftroamer46 
