Hey Rev, next time that Red goes south, do yourself a favor and throw a blue on it with a regulator.
One of the VERY first things I learned just after I bought the Stang, Mallory can't make fuel parts. Period. Had one of their regulators giving me a headache for about a month. Funny thing, yank it off the car, throw it over into the weeds, no more headaches!
You should be getting more than 20,000 out of a pump. Running a Relay on it? GOOD BIG WIRES, GOOD GROUND, nuttin smaller than 10 ga. wire, and you should be good to go.