So I thought my fuel pump had died, but when I went to replace it I realized that the entire wiring harness leading to the pump was cut cleanly in half - I don't know if it was chewed by a rodent or broke by some other means, but either way I have some wiring work to do before my car will start again. Does anyone have a recommendation for how best to approach this repair? Do I need to drop the fuel tank and work from below? What about the wiring itself - can I just crimp each individual wire back together, or should I use a different method?

 

If you can access the broken wires through the top, then it's a no brainer to do from above rather than dropping the tank.
I would recommend using crimp connectors that have a built-in shrink tubing sleeve (you can find them at most auto parts stores). Use a proper crimping tool and then hit it with a heat gun to shrink the tube which seals it off from the elements

 

Thanks! I took a closer look and was able to pull the wire down below the tank enough to avoid having to drop the tank while still having enough room to work. I didn’t see any way to make it work from above since the break was just beyond the interior access hole. I’ll report back once I’ve finished the work

 

Success! I reconnected the wires (6 total) using heat shrink butt splices (2 blue, 4 red), a heat gun, and without having to lift the car or drop the tank. The wiring comes out near the left rear wheel, and I was able to pull the harness end out to within reach of the fender, allowing me to work next to the car instead of completely under it. There are two brown/black/white wires that looked almost identical, but if you look closely one of them has a slightly narrower black line than the other. Everything else was fairly straightforward, and the reconnected harness was just long enough to reconnect to the fuel pump. If you have to remove any significant length from your harness, it will almost certainly require additional lengths of wire.