I saw this article on TeamBajaMarine forum and thought it would be of interest to you. This could be a very dangerous situation'
OK, I really do love my baja I swear.
But after a weekend of banging around in some medium chop I noticed a constant rattle coming from under the cockpit floor. I tried looking everywhere to see what I had dropped or misplaced before running that could have fallen down and stated to make noise. I narrowed my search down to something coming from the area where the gas tank is. On my boat its a center tank 150 gal under the center floor panel. Of course the floor panel has the seats bolted to it and they are in turn bolted to the sides so I had my work cut out for me. Two hours later after removing every single bolt and nut (almost all were wrong sizes and too long with too many washers) I got to the floor board and removed the 4inch screws that hold it to the stringers. I pulled it up and quit for the night. Today I uncovered the boat and noticed a tremendous gas smell in the cockpit. Searching everywhere I finally found the culprit. The goddam screws that hold the floor down went right into the gasoline fuel fill hose which, on my boat sits on top of the tank. I can not believe that the genius engineers of BAJA Marine couldn't figure out that if you push a screw down on top of a rubber hose it will most likely go through the hose as well. Now I agree it may be a fluke but there is absolutely no play in the hose whatsoever, it runs from the fill to the tank in an almost straight line. There are no holders for it to keep it out of harms way and I've checked with other 302 owners and the screws for the floor are all in the exact same spot. They come countersunk that way. I would assume that every single boat with my set up has the screw going through the 2inch gas fill line. Tell me, does this concern you??? I wonder how many times when topping off the tank the fuel came back up the fill hose a little and went right into the bilge or every time I leave a wave top the fuel comes out. I am so aggrivated with the design process here I felt it wise to vent on the board and not start smashing sh@#$t with a sledge hammer. I put the pictures up on the picture board but couldnt figure out how to link them. Check it out, how confident are you that yours isn't that way??
Maybe I'm crazy.
BTW... The rattle was five of the screws holding the tank down snapped off and bouncing around on the tank top and sides.
Rick
Thanks for the heads up
I have been thinking about this for a while.
I am taking the , If it ain't broke don't fix it approach.
i cant see tearing apart my boat just in case it is the same as guy in the story..
