Fuel shuts off while driving, why???

I have a ford f350 with a 460 1986 model. when the fuel gage reaches the 1/4 tank level it starts to sputter and sometimes shuts off. the weird thing is that if I keep driving and wait about three minutes it quits sputtering and runs fine from then on. any ideas as to what this is??

Is your 460 carbeurated or fuel-injected?

k harrell, it is carbureted.

could be getting a lot of air in the line. Do you have any fuel leaks anywhere? Check the tank pickup, might have to drop the tank.

where is the tank pickup

inside the tank.

I have a VERY similar problem with my F150 and have had the problem for a long time. It's always about a half a tank after a fill up. It happened the other day and my husband came in screaming it wouldn't idle and he was going to sell the truck (97 4x4 automatic with 60,000 miles) for $100 bucks in the Walmart parking lot. I could hear the truck idling rough in the driveway while he was making his announcment.

While juggling baby, getting ready for work, and LOADING the dishwasher, I sceamed back "REMOVE THE GAS CAP FOR 7 SECONDS AND PUT IT BACK ON!!!!" I waited, and all of the sudden, things sounded like they were back to normal. He came back in and announced quietly, you should be a machanic." :banghead: I'm thinking, "NO.....you should be a woman."

Apparently, some sort of vacuum is created at odd times and only every now and then (cool nights-warm days?). See if the gas cap thing works, and maybe that will buy some time til you can get in there and see what the problem really is. It's been work for me since I've had the truck. I'll get some time later to get in there and see what the real problem is OR I might drill a little hole in the gas cap to help "keep the air flow going" but for now, this is working.