I don't have a current picture but basically I took a pair of 500FG and
mounted them on a board. The one on the right was turned to face backwards
so both of the "in" ports faced each other. There is a three way 3/8" NPT
valve between these two ports with an SAE adapter. Center goes to the day
tank and the outputs go to the Racor "in" ports. Then on the outsides I
came from the "out" ports with an SAE to NPT elbow to a 2" nipple. Then a
NPT to Swagelok elbow and a short length of stainless tube to the second 3
way valve. The center port of this valve goes to the engine. I set the
valve handles so that they both point to the active filter.

Theoretically the procedure to change elements is (assuming you have a
couple of paper towels to catch the drips and clean up and you have either
gravity feed or a small fuel pump at the tank. )
1. Drain the crud out of the bowl of the current filter.
2. Turn both valves to the new filter,
3. Crack open the top of the filter to be changed and drain the contents
into a container.
4. Replace the old element and refill with the fuel you drained in step 3.
5. Replace the lid but leave it slightly loose.
6. Switch back to the original filter.
7. Tighten the lid as soon as you see a little fuel start to come out of the
top.

This is not the recommended procedure because Racor recommends that the
filters be in slight vacuum rather than pressure but it works. If your set
up has the engine pull the fuel so that the filters stay in slight vacuum,
refill the filter with additional fuel within about 1/8" from the top and
close the lid tightly. This small amount of air will remain at the top of
the filter and away from the out port.

All of the parts are available on eBay but the SAE fittings. They are like
hydraulic fittings but not quite and they ain't cheap.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Skip Gundlach" wrote in message
oups.com...
As I work my way back from the bow (the bulkhead forward of the
saloon), being almost finished in there, my thoughts turn to what's
ahead (or behind/astern, as you prefer).

I succeeded in buying a second Racor on eBay, and two mounted 2-way
valves at a flea market, but would prefer to not have to reinvent the
wheel, as I'm sure there are many here who have done it already.

I considered an already-built dual system, a standard Racor part
number, but it was prohibitively expensive. Theirs, of course, has a
single valve which controls all functions, and a vacuum guage.

Can anyone point me to how to make two separate filters set up in
parallel with the least amount of fuss about it?

Thanks.

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/p7rb4 - NOTE:new URL! The vessel as Tehamana, as we
bought her

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing,
messing-about-in-boats; messing about in boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

Dont use 3 way (or 4 way) valves in a fuel system. Such valves are
subject to 'cross port leakage' due to the contaminents in diesel fuel
oil .... sulphur + H2O = sulfonic acid which eats/etches most polished
valve faces. With cross port leakage you can't open up the 'other
side of the block/bypass without leakage. Use single valves instead;
two valves - one on EACH side of the filter housing; bring both
branches together with Tees.

In article llu7g.21455$iF3.20121@dukeread01, Glenn Ashmore
wrote:

I don't have a current picture but basically I took a pair of 500FG and
mounted them on a board. The one on the right was turned to face backwards
so both of the "in" ports faced each other. There is a three way 3/8" NPT
valve between these two ports with an SAE adapter. Center goes to the day
tank and the outputs go to the Racor "in" ports. Then on the outsides I
came from the "out" ports with an SAE to NPT elbow to a 2" nipple. Then a
NPT to Swagelok elbow and a short length of stainless tube to the second 3
way valve. The center port of this valve goes to the engine. I set the
valve handles so that they both point to the active filter.

Theoretically the procedure to change elements is (assuming you have a
couple of paper towels to catch the drips and clean up and you have either
gravity feed or a small fuel pump at the tank. )
1. Drain the crud out of the bowl of the current filter.
2. Turn both valves to the new filter,
3. Crack open the top of the filter to be changed and drain the contents
into a container.
4. Replace the old element and refill with the fuel you drained in step 3.
5. Replace the lid but leave it slightly loose.
6. Switch back to the original filter.
7. Tighten the lid as soon as you see a little fuel start to come out of the
top.

This is not the recommended procedure because Racor recommends that the
filters be in slight vacuum rather than pressure but it works. If your set
up has the engine pull the fuel so that the filters stay in slight vacuum,
refill the filter with additional fuel within about 1/8" from the top and
close the lid tightly. This small amount of air will remain at the top of
the filter and away from the out port.

All of the parts are available on eBay but the SAE fittings. They are like
hydraulic fittings but not quite and they ain't cheap.