buy a screwdriver & pump, and swap it in in <30mins. (May 15/15 update) Had a fuel pump fail just before driving home from a work trip (~7hr drive from home).

and it vents and operates beautifully now Worked like a charm and saved me over $1000 in Ford repairs. I knew it had to do with the evap canister entrapped water TSB so I used my new access panel and just installed a vent hose from the top of my fuel tank to just below the gas cap. I then got a code saying something about evap crap. Then it got worse and stopped at half tank. I began having fill problems to my fuel tank. That's why I 'went for it' and did the logical thing. I (1) broke a fitting piece on my fuel tank (i left one hose connected and it snapped off when lowering it), (2) spilled a bunch of fuel when I had to remove the fill hose, (3) did the entire job on my back with almost no lighting etc, and (4) stripped a bolt on my transmission support beam trying to lower it to give an inch of extra room to allow the tank to pull out. The first time I did a pump swap on an explorer I dropped the tank.

when I finished the job I felt pretty smart - particularly when reminded of how dirty I was after a 7hr fuel pump change in my old 2002 Your vehicle is now equipped with a well hidden access panel!

2004 explorer fuel pump location