Anyway to disassemble and clean the in-tank fuel pump/screen intake?

As the title says, is there anyway to disassemble the unit to clean it out? Just discovered I maybe have 10% of the screens allowing fuel to get through, the rest are completely blocked with sludge and other wonderful surprises.

I had a problem like that with an old one. Looked like greasy candle wax all over the screens. I took it down to the wand wash and pressure washed the hell out of it. Got the water to flow through the hose and all of the lines. It has now been soaking in the parts washer for the last 5 days and i will take it back to the wand wash and do it again. And hopefully get it to function.

mine cleaned up decently with a little carb cleaner and a small tack to get in the mesh of the screen... its amazing the truck ran as well as it did. hopefully i'll drain and drop the tank tomorrow

I'm in the middle of the same thing....Fuel tank all crusty, don't know the condition of the fuel pump yet; just getting the fuel out of the tank gave me a Baptism in diesel; oh! what fun....

i cant wait.... im draining mine in the morning... thankfully, my tank restoration isnt going to need a week of treating/soaking and drying... mostly removing the 1"+ of sludge in the bottom... not much rust except towards the top of the tank. we'll see in the AM

I guarantee you, in the Gulf environment you will have to coat it. I pulled the drain plug with the thing about half full, and Oh, what a mistake! Ended up using a jiggle siphon to drain it and flakes of crud came out. I'm going to end up paying about $350.00 here in El Piso to vat it and for them to coat it with an aviation grade coating (twice). The drain plug surface on the inside you could etch glass with, with it's corrosion. Oh well. After researching this issue on the internet, you can forget about being cheap and just vatting and running diesel. It will rust. Then you will get flakes. Then you will buy a new injector pump from where I do not know.

Westex said:

I'm in the middle of the same thing....Fuel tank all crusty, don't know the condition of the fuel pump yet; just getting the fuel out of the tank gave me a Baptism in diesel; oh! what fun....

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I had to do the same with one of mine. I was ready for that, so I just got a little on my hand, as it starts leaking 2-3 turns before it comes out.

Yes you can somewhat take apart the pump it is simple.... Mine was in pieces in the bottom of the tank, and works great now. The screen is crimped in lightly. You can kind of tweak them a bit and they will pull apart at the screen. Clean it, and under the screen is a layer of I believe 5 shims that can only be put in one way, I have found them laying in the bottom of tanks before, because the pump vibrated apart. If your pump motor turns on and spins than this is so easy! If one shim is missing in the stack it will not draw up a prime, so if you have a pump that has fallen apart get your arm down in there and find these pieces cause there a must. I would just wash it out before I took it apart thought, with carb cleaner or strong solvent....