So, of course

[Deadguy]

The one thing I haven't replaced on my M38A1 is the clutch. So what goes, 20 minutes into a road trip to Mass? It's weird too, the clutch pedal got super soft, and the clutch wouldn't disengage. Maybe it's the throwout bearing? On other cars, when the clutch has gone, the clutch won't engage, and the pedal remains firm.
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1952 M38A1
Marine core reinforced rear bumper, military transistorized turn signal upgrade, arctic heater, 11" drum brakes, 200L PTO winch, Huffy overdrive, deep water fording kit, RT 68 vehicle mounted radio, Trac Locs front and rear.
www.danhenk.com

[Bretto]

Did you look underneath?
Sounds like you just lost connection somewhere in the linkage like maybe a pin came out. That soft feel you describes sounds like the resistance of the pedal return spring.
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Brett
'51 M38
PHOTO DIARY OF MY BUILD

[bluewatersailor]

It sounds like the linkage. Last year on my 1952 M38A1, the weld broke that holds one of the "ears" in position on the tube. Nothing fell off so it was quite hard to see the fault because the "ear" was merely staying still while the tube rotated. A quick weld fixed it AFTER we dropped the tranny and inspected everything from the clutch disk back. Good luck. dwm
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David Manning
1952 M38A1, 1953 M38A1, 1954 M38-A1, 1952 M100
Photos on Page 10 of Members Albums.

[whydahdvr]

At least you were reasonably close to home base. I lost the tranny on my truck halfway through a 500 mile trip. I had to get a tow all the rest of the way back to Sierra Vista, AZ - in the middle of the night.

[Deadguy]

So, it turned out to be a combo of things. The pilot bearing had disintegrated, the throwout bearing was very worn, and the clutch looked to be the original from 1952-it was pretty bad. A bolt also had fallen out of the linkage. And, to top things off, since the tranny has to be pulled, it turns out one of the clip rings had broken off and was lying on the bottom of the case. The gears were free to move back and forth. Pretty shoddy work, considering I bought the trans rebuilt like new for $800 from Novak. All the gears looked good, except minor wear on the reverse gear (which I am told is normal), but the thing was slapped together with bolts barely tightened, cotter pins missing, the works. This is after I spent a month arguing with Novak that the gears were worn on the overdrive I bought from them. I finally got my money back, bought one from Herm, and it worked fine.
So, M38A1 up and running strong, starts up first try in cold weather with no choke! Hopefully, now that I've ended up rebuilding or replacing almost everything, I can move on to some cosmetic work. Like fabricating that winch mount!
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1952 M38A1
Marine core reinforced rear bumper, military transistorized turn signal upgrade, arctic heater, 11" drum brakes, 200L PTO winch, Huffy overdrive, deep water fording kit, RT 68 vehicle mounted radio, Trac Locs front and rear.
www.danhenk.com