3 fuel pumps in almost 30 years and somewhere north of 500k of driving d1, and one of them I bought that way. Just fight through it the once or twice in your life you need to get in there

 

There's a crossmember right above the top hole of the tank.

 

Oh sh&*…of course there would be one 😢

 

You can cut an access hole and remove the center section of the crossmember and fab up a new crossmember that is actually stronger than the original and not in the way of fuel pump removal...
but you still gotta remove it all to do this.

It makes it way easier if the pump dies "next time"... however you will most likely not even own the vehicle @ that point when it happens if you are the average Defender owner

 

This is the second time I have to replace it in 4 yrs. I think I’ll just leave it as is and not bither trying to install an access panel. Not worth the hassle.

 

It would have been nice if they made an access panel (not sure why they never did throughout the entire production run), but it’s not that bad to drop the tank. I think the most difficult one is the 90 with Td5/Puma fuel tank cradle. Have to get kind of creative using pry bars to wiggle the cradle out and back in. Then touch up the gouges on the chassis with paint.