Fuel Pump? Wiring Harness? Crankshaft Sensor? I'm lost..

Hi there!
I'm a newbie to the Tacoma world (please forgive for my lack of knowledge)- after getting my '03 about a year ago, my overjoyed sense of accomplishment in snagging what I thought was a "sweet deal" had slowly dwindled as one fix leads to another, and another, and another. I felt it was just a part of the investment and enjoyed learning more about my truck and simple fix-it's, (simple in my book is verrrrrrry simple- fuses, bulbs, oil changes, brakes & rotors, battery) and yes, that has all been "fixed" in less than a year. Along with the fuel pump & filter which was replaced about six months ago.
So here I am six months later, experiencing the same problem:
I'm driving, and all of a sudden power steering goes out, all lights in the dash come on, and no fuel is going anywhere when I press the accelerator. As I pull the vehicle to a halt and turn the engine off, I try and turn it back on and it wants to kick over, it just won't fire.
I've checked all fuses and spark plugs which are good. When you turn the battery on and listen next to the gas nozzle there is no sound, so I'm told that's classic fuel pump.
What I don't understand is it has already been replaced six months ago, and the pump that was replaced was already an after market part, so now I'm looking at replacing it a third time? That doesn't make sense to me.
The guy I purchased the truck from had done a looooooot of mods himself (he was a senior in high school mind you, so I don't have a lot of faith in the quality of those installations..)
So I guess I'm just looking for ideas. I really want to figure this out as DIY as I can. A few friends have suggested the wiring harness, which I'm told would really be terrible. Another suggested the crankshaft sensor.
Is it normal to replace the fuel pump this often?!

 

Was your Mil tripped ??

Just what brand pump ?? Some after market fuel pumps are junk.

I have had good luck with DENSO pumps Rock Auto @$ 75.00

Are you in the habit of driving around on fumes ??

 

High school kid modded Tacoma at a bargain price........yikes.

 

if he has been hacking into wires you might have a nightmare on your hands there.

I would assume anything he touched was messed up and if that includes a lot of wiring then you have to open all that up and redo the stock oem wiring the way it was meant to be and seal it all up properly.

the fuel pump on our trucks DOES NOT GET POWER OR RUN WITH JUST THE KEY ON, it only gets power and runs while the engine is actually turning over or running, so not hearing it run with the key on does not indicate a bad fuel pump.

I think whatever is killing the truck is the whole problem and its not the pump not working to run out of gas

 

Same problem with my previuos truck. Check the crackshaft. The problem was the Pulley was never place correctly leaving it losse, this problem had just sufficient play with the crackshaft Pulley assembly, this was obviusly trowing off the engine timming.
They fix the issue by replacing the Pulley and Key. Problem fix
Hope this will help

PD:
All of this after changing several pumps, cleanning MAf sensor, etc