Is it leaking?
I would do as you suggest...drop it and take a close look for any holes. Then clean out the inside, and if there is rust, then put in some ear plugs and toss in some small lengths of chain, or nuts and bolts, and then gently start agitating it.
Once mostly clean I personally would fill it with some molasses and water....about 10 to 1 mix of water to molasses, but you can mix it 5 to 1 f you want it to act faster. Then let it sit for 3-10 days. The molasses will eat away any rust and leave it nice and clean. I have cleaned many parts this way, and it's very effective. I buy my molasses from a commercial animal feed store in a 5 gal pail...much cheaper that way.
Then once clean install it. I would run a small cheap plastic fuel filter for a while before the fuel pump. Chances are there is a lot of sludge, varnish and residue in the fuel line, and that going into a fuel pump will only shorten the service life of the fuel pump. I personally run two fuel filters on all my vehicles...one before, and one after the fuel pump.