Exhaust Hose Partially Slipped Off

JJOcean · May 22, 2018

I was out on the lake most of the day and about to finish up about 3 hours of surfing when I notice the exhaust note changed as I was sitting idle while changing riders. Flip up the back cushion ... more exhaust note and exhaust smell immediately noticed, plus more water than normal and i could tell the water in the bilge was moving around a little. All not normal. Could easily tell the exhaust output was partially discharging into the engine bay. Of course I'm sitting there with full ballast. Thankfully I was close to the dock.

Once back and up on lift I was able to tell the large exhaust hose (guessing 4" diameter) that runs along the bottom of the hull had partially slipped off from the hard fiberglass U tube (my term for it). Basically, coming off the port cat it has a short ~6" rubber exhaust hose that then attaches to the "hard U tube" that then attaches to a +36" rubber hose and ultimately to the flapper down the line. It was the connection between the u tube and the +36" hose where it partially slipped off. Both the hose clamps were completely loose too. It also looks like the other side of the u tube that is connected to the ~6" hose had slipped some too, but it didn't slip off. Those hose clamps were fairly tight, but I loosened them in the pic in an attempt to get the lower hose back on.

Any tips on getting the hose back on? It is a real PITA. Very tight quarters, rigid hose and the U tube has very little play - even after I loosened the top.

Shot of lower hose seperation

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Shot of top hose slip - no seperation

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Jake707 · May 23, 2018

Looks like youre gonna need to put your big boy pants on to fix that. Loosen up the hose clamps and reach into your tool box and pull out the pure brute F'n strength and man handle that SOB back on there. Even my favorite tool at the shop, the BFH, wont help you here.

Id be more interested in how that happened in the first place. Like you said its a rigid hose and not a lot of room there so how was it knocked partially off enough to allow the exhaust pressure to eventually push it off.

Troy · May 23, 2018

that would be a lot of exhaust pressure to blow them off like that IMO.

rhino89523 · May 23, 2018

Cant tell if that's just aftermath or if paws that touched it but the witness marks kind of look like the clamps were on tweaked and helped push it off trying to center up. All of that piping has very minimal pressure unless you have a banana in the tailpipe...it either was originally not seated home, tweaked, improperly torqued or at some point you had a restriction that created serious back pressure. As far as getting it back on there it just need to be manhandled basically, you could give it some lube on dirtbike tires I use windex I guess you could lube it up with RV coolant like what we use to winterize...It shouldn't blow off of there....unless you have a massive turbocharger you forgot to mention.

JJOcean · May 23, 2018

Got it back on. As stated by you guys above, just required me putting my big boy pants on and recruiting a second person to apply the pressure to keep the U tube aligned while I finagled the hose back on. 1 person can't do both of those things at the same time. A lot of sweat, body contortions and 6 bloody knuckles was the cost.

As for how it happened, I think the hose clamps were never on tight or at some point were loosened and never re-tightened and it just slowly slide off over time. Where the hose slipped off - those 2 hose clamps were completely loose to the point I could easily spin them (and the screw) by hand. The ones on top were tight, they just show loose and moved in the pic I took because I loosened them up with a screw driver in an attempt to get it back on.

I did find a post on here from 2010 when searching "exhaust hose", where somebody had a brand new boat where this same thing happened right after delivery and they concluded somebody at the factory never tightened the hose clamps. I don't know if that was the case with my boat, but it is certainly one of the possibilities.

My recommendation is for you guys to check the tightness of your hose clamps the next time you go out.