Mike: The first one I took off was hard but the rest came off easy once I learned how to do it.
First: I cut off the pressed in brass ring inside the coupling that holds the hard hose against the outer coupling. Look inside the hose end and you will find a brass part that is pressed inplace to keep the couplings from coming off. It is flat and you can see where it ends and the hose starts inside each end of the hard suction hose. Once that was cut thru(I used a sharp metal chizel), I used a screw driver to force the brass into a smaller size(I bent it in half) so I could lift it out of the hose. Next, I used a flat chizel to cut thru the hose on one side of the diameter from front to back( Don't go past the end of the couplings). Using that cut, I took a long screw driver to go completely around the interior of the hard hose so as to loosen it from the coupling. Mine were bonded to the couplings interior when they were built back in the 1950's. I don't know it that is standard or not.
Anyway, once I loosened up the hose from the inside of the couplings, I wacked it with a rubber mallot until it started to slide off the hose. Once it started to move, it was easy to remove. I had a hard time with the first one as I didn't want to damage it but it was not hard once the first one came off. So I followed that procedure for the other three couplings and I was done in under an hour.
