'71 1350 Wire harness fire

Walked past the boat as I was leaving for work. Some black junk on the ground caught my eye. Looking around to find where it came from, I look up and see soot on the wrap around, which leads my eyes down to the harness. I opened it up, and of course the internal harness is fried as well. I have a couple of questions. 1 other than replacing the harnesses, fuel lines, and what I believe to be water line, what else should I look for, what is the likelihood is some other electrical component was damaged? 2 Am I correct the tube running top to bottom between carbs and starter, and its branches are water lines? If not what are they? Is there anything special about them, or will any like "ID" hose work? 3 Is it an accepted practice to unplug the harness from the engine / disconnect the battery, or was I just unlucky? (obviously it had a short, so nut really luck I guess)
Thanks, Jeff

Re: 1350 Wire harness fire

Re: 1350 Wire harness fire

key switch was on ? the hoses are not water lines. the ones coming out of engine block run excess fuel from bottom of crankcase

Re: '71 1350 Wire harness fire

No, key was in the house.
How does it run fuel from the bottom?

Re: '71 1350 Wire harness fire

GT, That motor has a one-way brass fitting on the crankcase, connected to the lower main ball bearing. Crankcase pressure forces any residual fuel up a small diameter tubing where the fuel is deposited on the upper main roller bearing to help lubricate it.

You probably did not damage anything, unless the fire got to it directly.

Re: '71 1350 Wire harness fire

Just to clarify, other than the regular fuel supply lines, the rubber hose ( guessing about 3/16" ID ) that runs full length top to bottom between the carbs, and starter, and has three branches that run back to the block, are fuel/lube supply for bearings? So I need to replace them with fuel line, yes?

Re: '71 1350 Wire harness fire

Upon further review... I got home from work and to my surprise, my memory failed me some. There are only two branches, and it doesn't quite run top to bottom. It's broken into 4 segments 6"-9" long with 5 fittings into the block. Sorry, my description may have been a bit incomplete. So, this is the residual line to top bearing you're talking about?
Thanks for the replies.

Re: '71 1350 Wire harness fire

You have cylinder balance hoses on that motor as well. They are 5/16 or 3/8 ID, and connect the top reed block to the center reed block and the center reed block to the lower reed block. The hose that lubricates the upper main bearing is much thinner (like 1/8" ID) and runs from the very bottom of the block to the very top, just under the flywheel.