NV3500 Clutch Kit with Slave Cylinder Chevy S10 4.3L

This is a complete clutch replacement for the NV3500 five-speed sitting behind the 4.3L V6 in 1996-2005 Chevrolet Blazer and S10, GMC Jimmy and Sonoma, 1996-1998 C1500 and K1500, 1996-1999 P30 and P3500, and 1997-2000 Isuzu Hombre. It supersedes reference numbers 04-153, L04153, 04153NB and 04153ST1. The disc is 11.02 inches across with a 10-spline hub sized for the 1.14 inch NV3500 input shaft, four damper springs in the hub, and the pressure plate measures 13.58 inches across the cover. Check the spline count and disc diameter against what came out before you order - the 2.2L four-cylinder trucks run a smaller disc and a different transmission.

Everything needed for the job is in the box: pressure plate, clutch disc, pilot bearing, concentric clutch slave cylinder and a plastic alignment tool. The slave cylinder matters here. On these trucks it lives inside the bellhousing on the input shaft snout, so it is only reachable with the transmission out. Reusing an original slave that has 150,000 miles on it means pulling the NV3500 a second time when the seal weeps and the pedal goes to the floor a few months later.

On the bench, press the old pilot bearing out of the crank and drive the new one in flush before anything else, then check the flywheel face - if it is blued, grooved or heat-checked, resurface it or replace it, because a new disc against a glazed flywheel will chatter from day one. Hang the disc with the alignment tool through the hub and into the pilot bearing, marked side toward the flywheel, then bring the pressure plate down and run the bolts in a crossing pattern in stages rather than one at a time so the cover pulls down square. Bleed the slave cylinder before the transmission goes back up; once the case is bolted to the block the bleeder is buried.

The symptoms that send people here are the usual clutch failures on a high-mileage 4.3L: engine revs climbing without matching speed under load in the higher gears, a burnt smell after a hill, a pedal that grabs right at the top of its travel, or shudder when pulling away from a stop. A slave cylinder that has failed internally gives itself away differently - the pedal sinks, gets soft, and the truck will not come out of gear at idle even though the fluid level looks fine.