Help - 1996 Ford F250 5.9L, no fuel

I'm working on a neighbor's truck. It has sat for about three years. After freeing up the starter, I can get it to start and run for a moment on starter fluid, but it dies quickly.

• What's a good step by step troubleshooting procedure on these for fuel?
• Should I even be trying to run it without draining and refilling the gas tank?
• I don't hear a fuel pump when I turn the key. Should I? All my old trucks had a mechanical pump and carb, this is mid-90s fuel injection. Just one pump in the tank? Drop the tank for access?
• The vacuum hoses are cracked and mostly useless. I'm going to replace them next. Would any of the effect the basic fuel flow significantly?

Thanks for any help.

Afterthought... the gas gauge says full. I just remembered that none of my old Fords had a working gauge. It may not have ANY gas.

My '82 Ford with a mishmash of '90s fuel system parts has a fuel gauge that reads completely full (practically 5/4 of a tank on the gauge scale) despite something being broken between the sender and gauge rendering it nonfunctional. FWIW, I don't know if this is due to mismatched parts on my end, but it's possible you either have no fuel or a broken gauge. 

Late '80s to early '90s EFI Ford pickups used an external electric pump or combo of in-tank lift and high pressure external, but by '96 it should be a (modern-ish) in-tank high pressure pump and sending unit module.

My '93 F150 has a fuel pump that you can hear from three houses away when it primes.  Not sure that yours would as well as mine is designed to put out about 1.5x the pressure that one is, but from my experience you should be able to hear it.

If you can't the normal most likely cause is the relay or the pump itself.  With a truck that's been sitting for 3 years, it could be a wire that got chewed on by some damned rodent.  There should be a schrader valve on the injector rails, you should be able to screw a pressure gauge into that and check for pressure. 

Vacuum hoses shouldn't affect starting at this point.  They'd screw up idle and other things, but shouldn't mess with the ability to start.

You don't mention if it is a dual tank truck, is it?  Fords of that era are notorious for having one fuel pump work and the other not.