Considering electric fuel pumps are wear items, I'd be planning on a replacement anyway. Until then, keep the tank topped up because heat will kill the pump and the pump uses the fuel as a coolant. Let the level drop too much and the pump will overheat and wear faster. In fact, it's possible that the pump already has an increased current draw and that's what fried the relay. The relays are sized larger than the fuel pump's expected draw, and should last the life of the truck, but if too much current is drawn through they'll fry. Yes, they can also wear out because they too are wear items, but they're supposed to be good for something like half a million state changes and the relay only changes state when you start the truck and when you shut it off. If the rated number of state changes is 500,000 (I don't know the actual number) then you'd have to start the truck and shut it down 10 times (20 state changes) a day, every day, for 68 years to wear it out.

 

Thanks, I'm aware of the fuel being coolant for the pump, which is probably one of the reasons it's lasted so long. I try to not let it go low, unless I'm trying to figure out my gas mileage. The relay wasn't fried, but intermittently faulty, it seems. Last year when I was doing my lifters, I had pulled the relay to kill the fuel pressure before pulling the rail, then misplaced it. I may have replaced it with another JY relay that wasn't up to snuff, back then. While rare, I've seen relay failures across varied vehicles, here an there. Usually it's the ones controlling AC compressors. Guess they get the most usage.