Fuel pump weirdness

I bought a 97 XJ that had been converted to a 350 Chevy/700R4. It has a carb which I am fine with. Has a mechanical fuel pump which is also fine. Here's where it gets weird. It seems that the guy who built it retained the original electric fuel pump and it feeds the mechanical pump. I assume the mechanical pump sort of regulates the pressure or something. Not sure. Anyway, not the electric pump appears to be dying.

Should I replace it and continue with the setup as-is? It does (did) work pretty well.

Disconnect the electric pump, modify the return line to be used as the fuel line and just keep going with the mechanical?

Replace both with a good low pressure electric pump (I have one brand new for another project)?

Which is the simplest, most reliable, cost effective method? Not going to go with fuel injection so that's not an option. Too expensive at this time.

IMO Put an electric pump on it and call it a day.

My issue with an external pump is that this will be on trails some and my luck dictates that the pump would get damaged, leak, catch fire, burn the Jeep and half the woods to the ground.

Put it inside the frame rail high enough in the back where nothing can come in contact with it. I really don't think you're gonna have a problem.

the mechanical pump was designed to work with no pump at all in the tank right? I would either take the electric pump out (you will also want to bypass the fuel pressure regulator at the top of the pump assembly) or perhaps retrofit it with a lower pressure electric pump, perhaps the one meant for the 87-90 TBI 2.5L. That will push around 14-15psi, which I imagine will be a lot easier on the mechanical pump and carb setup.

Why do you say the electric pump appears to be dying? Is it having problems running or can you just hear the pump getting louder?