coachgeo,
that screen is aluminum looking and is a huge size socket... I went to my local Sears and bought a 1" drive with an adapter to 1/2" drive to get it out. WHen I pulled mine, the screen portion was clogged pretty heavily with dirt/grime/algae, etc. I would strongly recommend getting it out and cleaning it good.....yours like mine has probably never been changed in 20+ years of fuel, that's a bunch of time for stuff to accumulate. It's a piece of mind thing to me!

Good luck!

JMH