Muncie Gear Works originally made automobile transmissions. When that market dried up after the start of the "Great Depression" in the fall of 1929, they retooled in 1930 and came out with a small line of inexpensive outboard motors in 1931. All model numbers started with "OB". They made some for the Sears Roebuck catalog under the Motor Go and Waterwitch label but still used OB in the model number. This was in place through 1937. In 1938 they dropped the OB and went to 3 or 4 numbers followed by a A, B, or C. Two of the numbers were the year built with the other number being the horse power of the motor. Those with A were plane motors called Muncies. The B models were deluxe outboards called Neptunes and the C models were built for third party catalog sales. 1940 models started with 10, ’41 models started with 11. No motors were built from 1942 through 1945. After the war they put the A or B after the year designation followed by the horsepower. In 1948 they came out with a new ten horse. In 1949 Johnson introduced there classic 10 horse QD with a full shift and separate fuel tank. Muncie responded by cutting prices and going mail order. In a few years they were only selling the 1.7 horse Mighty mite, but they did it tenaciously. They finally stopped production in 1984 and were at that time the second oldest outboard company in the US – behind OMC producers of Evinrude and Johnson. The downside of all this is I could not match your model number with any in my list of Muncie products. The 38 means it could have been built in 1938, nothing else matches. . . 😐
