On Tue, 2 Mar 2021 06:34:12 -0800 (PST), trader_4 wrote:


For whatever reason there's a third black hose to hose plastic connector
that was sitting inside the gas tank.

Did you look inside the connector? Try to pass a wire through it? Mine was
just a connector, open.

Definitely. Mine is the same as was yours.
The black mystery part is just an end to end plastic hose connector.
I put the "spare" back inside the gas tank (for want of a better place).

The hoses need to be a tight fit because they're well below the fill line.

For whatever reason, the return hole seems slightly smaller but maybe it
just seemed smaller because the green hose had welded itself to the hole.
A 7/64" drill bit (2.78mm) seems to have cleaned it out though.

What I didn't know then but I now know is that both hoses are the same.
3/32" ID by 3/16" OD by about a foot long

A slightly larger ID would make it a lot easier but you can't use a slightly
larger OD as anything bigger will never make it into the two existing holes.

I ended up reaming the filter end with the 7/64" drill bit twirled by hand.

If I were to do it again, my strong recommendation would be to forget the
Arnold kit because you get 10 feet of the right hose for almost the same
amount rather than 1 foot of the right hose & 1 foot of the wrong hose.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Arnold-1...0008/300614400

I'd get ten feet of the right hose knowing I need only about two feet.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...-016/303132512
And I'd ream the ends with a 7/64" or 1/8" drill bit twirled in my fingers.

The pull by wire trick might work so I'd want to try it the next time
but shaving the OD with a knife and pushing with needlenose pliers
until enough is sticking inside to pull with long-nose pliers works.

It's one of those jobs where I get frustrated because patience isn't one of
my virtues. I hate spending fifteen minutes just getting one end of one hose
through a small hole for example, and then another fifteen minutes getting
that hose out of the gas tank and then another fifteen minutes just pushing
the filter onto the end of the hose and yet another fifteen minutes just
pushing the end of the hose onto the carb nipple.

My wife watched from the window and when I came inside she asked me
"What took you so long?"

When I cursed Troy-Bilt, she let it go at that as she's used to me blaming
the manufacturer for putting what I think were terrible hoses on the thing.

I don't know how old it is but I'd guess about five years it has been in
storage but it's been stored inside so I don't know why the hoses crumbled.

How long do yours last?