Replacing fuel filter heads on 2002 282, help!

[bc282]

After being visually reminded by dock mate tinstepct clear racor bowls for water--watched him empty nearly a cup of water from 2 racors! I've decided to to go with clear bowls with the drain and swap out the yami or Sierra filters.

The Parker Racor or Sierra filters actually fit the existing fuel heads, I just needed to buy filters and bowls, but I decided to replace the nasty looking aluminum heads with beautiful stainless units. Bit the bullet and at $70 each I was the proud owner of 2 SS fuel heads.

Here's the problem, existing heads are BOLTED thru and not screwed. access to the nuts are near impossible. I visually verified this with an inspection mirror n light. I wish I had a small 2 year oldish child I could employ to help me get a wrench on the nuts! Never thought I'd want kids until then!

Heads are bolted to the front of the "ledge/shelf" which the 3 batteries sit on. This ledge has an approx 8" face that is too deep to reach behind thru the hatch in the aft bench especially if you can't see what your aiming for with the guesstimated wrench.

Should I just drill out the bolts to get the old heads off and then just screw in the new heads?

Id like to reuse the existing hoses as they are fine and so would screw the new heads either a little higher or lower and just seal up the old holes from bolt (2 per head).

 

[Enough Already]

Drilling out bolts in a tight area sounds like a massive chore (around fuel lines, vapors, etc???). Is there zero access to get a wrench in there? In cases where I have tight and hard to get to areas where a dropped wrench would be lost forever, I tie a safety line to one end of the wrench. If you can get it in there, once things get loosened or hand-tight, get a strip of duct tape across the nut to hold the nuts/washers as they come off the back side (don't want those rolling around the bilge as well). Unless they built the boat around the mounting area after mounting the filters, there has to be some way to get to the back side. Or hire a kid! You will love the upgrade to SS. Check the SIM thread on the vendor forum at THT - lots of before/after shots. Once bolts are removed, seal the holes and remount the new with some fat screws w/light pre-drill, assuming you have some good wood to get in to. When I did mine, I replaced all the lines (including new fuel bulbs), except the main one to the fuel tank. Also installed new SS hose clamps.