I don't know if there is room for this on an 1800, but take a look if the other ways don't work. I ruined that pickup strainer on my 142E when I tried to remove it to clean it, so I left it off and spliced a replaceable filter between the tank and the fuel pump. Works fine and has the advantage that you can see when it fills up with junk and swap in a clean one. Actually, I've only had to do that once. That was right after I installed it last summer, and quite a bit of debris was still coming out of the tank. I had knocked a couple of fairly large dents out of the tank, dislodging a substantial amount rusty whatever.
Bob S.