Charge or replace the battery.
It started before, leave the wires alone for now, it should be OK; especially since you have fuel leaking. Have the friend help with the wiring later if there are issues.
Replace the fuel pump and put a filter between the pump and the carb whether it has a sediment bowl or not. Closer to the carb is better. You don't know if the old pump still had a filter screen in it. Could have been getting trash from the tank. Probably why your float was stuck at some point.
Gas won't siphon up hill from the tank to the carb and into the engine through the carb if the pump isn't pumping gas up to it, so I agree about a leaking pump. Replace it. That is quite a bit of gas in the oil to be just from periodic flooding.
My 2 cents.
Larry W
