So, my M38a1 died on the road

[Deadguy]

About 45 miles an hour, down the local highway, and it dies. I try to restart it, and the starter switch is jammed. I was driving a friend to the airport, it's raining, and a turn cut to sharply and I hit the median. Vehicle was still running fine, I pulled it over and checked, and aside from one tire missing a small chunk now, everything seemed ok. I checked the tie rods, everything looked fine, and we continued on. About ten minutes later, going down the highway, the vehicle suddenly turns off. I hit the starter switch with my foot, and it's jammed. My friend says the solanoid inside is probably jammed, and hits the starter lightly with the blunt end of my military ax. Nothing. I have triple AAA, and I'm actually standing on the side of the road, typing on my iPhone, waiting for a tow truck

[timjuhl]

I had that happen once. The points had come apart. One second I was rolling along the next second the engine just quit.

Any possibility your battery is dead?

Let us know what happened.

Tim

[Deadguy]

The fuel pedal linkage sometimes sticks, and the vehicles idles high or low. If it's idling low, the engine threatens to stall sometimes when I slow down. I was on the highway, I think I hit the brakes at one point (it was raining, so I allowed a big lead for slowing down before other cars) and that might have stalled the engine. I then reached my foot over to hit the starter, and that's when I found out it was jammed. I drifted over to the side of the road, and couldn't get the pedal unstuck to restart the engine. I had Triple A tow it to my friend's shop. There, I tested the started by reaching in the engine bay, and the starter was fine. So was the switch. So, just the foot pedal linkage is apparently jammed. It's a royal pain to remove that foot pedal-one of the bolts is held in place by a loose nut on the other side, and it's the bolt closest to the engine, which makes the back side almost impossible to get too. So, maybe it's just the foot pedal, I haven't even gotten the engine started to see if it runs ok, but according to the voltmeter, it puts out plenty of juice.

[timjuhl]

There's not much to the starter foot pedal. I have seen the spring get rusty and break which might cause the pedal to jam.

I had a problem with the accelerator linkage binding which I corrected by loosening the bolts holding the pedal to the floor and moving it to a slightly different position and the re-tightening. Everything is pretty smooth now.

Glad you got the Jeep and yourself off the highway to a safe place.

Tim

[wesk]

Remove the upper half of the tranny cover which has the starter kick pedal in it and then you can have easy access to both sides.

[Deadguy]

This was me earlier today

[wesk]

With those tires on a daily driver in the northeast in the winter you were lucky you just bumped a median.

[Deadguy]

yeah, not good at all in the rain. Snow is probably even worse. I'll put it away for the winter after I get it running and use my 1998 Isuzu Amigo-that's my new winter car.

[timjuhl]

I took mine for a spin after a snowstorm before the roads were totally cleared and quickly decided to return home. If I was going to drive it much in the winter I would definitely want some decent snow tires.

I wonder why the military stuck so long with NDT and NDCC tires? They certainly make the Jeep look authentic but can get you in trouble if you're not careful.

Tim

[chuck]

Unless you are on dry pavement or off road the NDs can be dangerous. I had a brand new set on my M38 for about 800mi after I restored it, and decided to get a set of Cooper ST 215 85 R16s and absolutely love them.
Chuck

[wesk]

In the winter months years ago when you came upon a military convoy on a public highway in lousy weather they were usually parked in a motel parking lot or moving at 30 MPH or less. Those tires have never been safe on slick hard surfaces and the military knew that but there was up through those years no reliable offroad tire that didn't rely on large knobby treads. The military's point was urban and paved highway combat environments were rare. And urban generally meant very low speeds.

This topic has surfaced so many times on all the jeep forums. Of all those discussions the only person I ever saw say they were perfectly safe on ice and snow covered paved roads was Joel Gopan alias Ben Dover on the G503 board. He based that on his infinitely greater jeep savvy attitude and 3 years in the Army in the 50's.

[whydahdvr]

Wes!
I always crack up at some of the points you make. Especially the last.
So, I'm sure Ryan and other's have me beat but after 10 years in the Army even the current tires on HMVEEs aren't great in the snow. The vehicle has so much weight though and we're usually going at slow speeds, or on prepared hardball surfaces that it's not too much of an issue. But, for example, my duty weekend was cancelled this past weekend due to the blizzard here in the Northeast. My old unit, the Engineers, were out but they had the roads to themselves so less to worry about. And they were loaded down.
Even in Iraq we had to be careful on or off road, especially with the mud. So, long-winded way of saying I agree completely with your points and experience.

[wesk]

I spent 2 in the Army and 22 in the Air Force. The Air Force usually retired their tactical vehicles with civvy treads even back in the 60's. We seldom ran the NDCC's. Even in SEA the USAF Security Police ran civvy treads on most of their M38A1's, M151's and M715's. But the bulk of our driving was done on paved surfaces.