I highly recommend removing the round filter disk on the fuel pump and this is from personal experience. I have to replace two fuel pumps; yes I am on my third pump. Ford replaced the first pump and of course they did not remove the disk. The next one I had to replace since the car and the other pump was out of warrantee. After doing some research on this site, I determined that the disk was not needed. My first pump went out at 24,000 miles. My next pump went out at 56,000 miles. The pump I put in without the filter disk is running fine at 91,000 miles. The sock filter will remove any particles that could hurt the pump. The fuel filter will remove the fine particles that will hurt your fuel injection system. I noticed at 90,000 miles that I was getting some hesitation, so I replaced my fuel filter and the problem went away. If I had that fine filter disk on my fuel pump, I would be replacing another fuel pump. Pumps need something to pump so it is better to restrict the flow out of a pump than to restrict flow to a pump. I work at a plant and we will put a strainer on a suction of a pump (like the sock filter) but not a very fine filter. If we need to have a fine filter, we always put the filter downstream of the pump.
In my opinion Ford made a mistake to provide such a fine filter disk on the suction of a pump.
