Took a '95 Chevy � ton for a test drive today. Decent looking truck, a few dings, but nothing major. The owner claimed ignorance about the truck, which set off some warning flags.
It turned out to have a 5.7 with a 5 speed tranny. It started up quickly, and started down the road just fine (he handed me the keys, and I test drove it on my own, just a small town benefit) but after a few miles, I noticed the clutch seemed to be slipping. While accelerating from 35 to 45mph, in 4th gear, the engine revved up to nearly 4000rpms, but the truck barely sped up at the same time. It felt like driving an automatic tranny.
I tried to smell the classic 'burnt clutch' smell, but didn't get a strong wiff of the dust. I thought I smelled it a bit, but it was slight at best.
Anyhow, I repeated the slipping clutch test several times, and had lots of engine rpm increase with little speed increase. Also, I wondered if I just had it in the wrong gear, so I tried several gears and speeds. It wasn't as if the engine was bogging down, and then catching up, the engine spooled up fine, with no according speed increase.
It's a nice enough truck that I might be willing to offer a lower price, and use the saved cash to have the clutch replaced. I've replaced a couple clutches in my day, and don't care to repeat the experience. I was wondering, what's the normal cost to have a shop replace the clutch, pressure plate, and throw out bearing?
