E38 Rudder bearing (bushing?) maintenance

FullTilt E28 said:

Ok so those ribbed white drain hoses ie original. I have them also. My electrician buddy spotted them and said get rid of those as soon as you can. Seems he's seen quite a few split and fail. Thats next on my list of things to do once we finish up our deck gear and rigging update.

So if your cramming your self down in the aft locker might as well pull out the old drain hoses and find a replacement for them.

I was told to go with the good stuff and not worry about it anymore.

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Yeah, I had a thought or two about those stiff old vacuum cleaner hoses. I crimped the lower hose that drains under the water line when I was repositioning it to prevent it from flooding the area while I was working on the thru-hulls. It's probably ok, though. The ends of these are nice - they don't leak and are easy to get off of a barb - but the plastic is bound to crack sometime. I suppose it would be best to replace them with something newer, harder to bend, and harder to get on/off barbs. Once they're on, they hardly ever come off.

The drain hoses in my E38 were severely dry rotted marine wet exhaust hose when I got the boat. I replaced with the same. Its a real bear working that kind of hose in such a large size in those tight quarters but it do-able. Just prepare to curse. Plenty. RT

The routing of those drains has been a burr with me since I first saw them. I know the outboard ones have to drain to a lower point because when heeled, they aren't above or far enough above the water line to prevent water from backflooding up them. My question is, has anyone explored the possibility of installing check valves on them and re-routing them to new through-hulls above the waterline and immediately adjacent to the outboard cockpit drain outlets? I'm about to go look at check valves to find out why THAT wouldn't fly.

Dan Morehouse
1981 E-38 "Next Exit"