89 K1500 4x4 5-Speed w/Off-road pkg 5.0L Sport box 147K miles
Problem:  Slipping Clutch.....Bucking in 1`st & Reverse

I bought the truck twelve years ago. The clutch then had a chatter/
bucking when starting out in 1st gear & even worse in reverse gear. I
did a clutch kit replacement two years after I bought it. The bucking
was still there..It still does now...always has... So .... I slip the
clutch a lot and usually do not use 1st gear...I shift a lot especially
when in a freeway back up.... I know it's my fault that a clutch only
lasts five years, I'm OK with that...Because this is the third clutch
kit in twelve years I wanted to know what was causing the bucking too
and fix it right this time...

.. Murphy .. has been kicking my a.s ..

Last month I inspected the u-joints. They were good. Most of the seals
were leaking. I checked the tranny and engine mounts and they looked
good. The rear yoke was a little sloppy. I had all the seals replaced
and rear yoke was cinched up to 150lbs.

.. (Murphy) ..  The shop mechanic cracked the tranny's tail housing
while taking out the old seal with a crow bar. He found a good used
housing and delivered it to me that evening with a new seal installed
and a tube of RTF.

.. (Murphy) ..  Last week I rented The Tranny-Jack from Hell....I think
it's older than dirt...I had to stop in the middle of removal to fix
the beast......It's fighting me the whole way in and out ... three
times in and out so far.

.. (Murphy) ..  I rented a slide hammer and pilot shaft bushing
puller.....the puller broke and I had to wait till the next day to get
another one.

Upon inspection the fly wheel had heat spots, the disk was almost down
to the rivets and had two broken damper springs (Damper springs were
also broken on the first clutch plate I replaced ten years ago). The
pressure plate was also heat spotted. The throw-out bushing was
wasted...very sloppy loose.
The ball stud looked OK. About what I had expected. The fork tines did
not look parallel.

I had the flywheel turned and installed the clutch kit and new fork. I
put it all back together and had no clutch pedal pressure.(Murphy)
Through the inspection hole I could see the fork just starting to move
just before the pedal hit the floor. I thought maybe I had put the
throw-out bearing on backwards ... so I dropped the bell housing out
far enough to see that the throw-out was installed right. I dropped the
pressure plate and checked that the clutch plate was "This side
towards flywheel"...it was...I checked the pressure plate finger
height (unloaded) and found that the old pressure plate was
different....1/8" higher... same manufacture, different part numbers.
I called several parts shops & a local Chevy dealer parts guy, They all
came up with the same part numbers that are in the clutch kit. So then
I replaced the 2 year old slave cylinder. The end of the pushrod was
badly worn. (Murphy) I bled the air three times, finally got my old
pedal pressure back but the clutch is still not disengaging.(Murphy) I
dropped it out again and replaced the kit pressure plate with the old
resurfaced pressure plate. Same problem ... the clutch is not being
released. I guess that just removing the slave from the bell housing
caused it to go bad. Could the new slave be weak...??? (Murphy) The
truck was up on ramps so the master and slave were not level... I had
to wait two hours until my neighbor was home to help me push it off the
ramps. (Murphy) I bled the lines twice more after rolling it off the
ramps...No bubbles...The master cylinder was replaced 5 years ago. I
don't think it has all of a sudden gone bad too. It was working fine
a week ago.???(Murphy)???

Meanwhile the battery died (Murphy)....would not take a charge
(Murphy)...Had to replace the battery side stud bolts because my
channel locks stripped those little small heads....I hate those 10mm
things.....My shoe keeps coming untied (Murphy)...I keep banging my
head on the same spot. (Murphy) It seems like every tool I need is out
of reach or missing... (Murphy). I misplaced my keys for an hour.
(Murphy) ... My phone rings at least every other hour...Murphy is
kicking my a.s every two minutes .... nothing is going smoothly....And
the Rental shop keeps calling to see if I'm still using their
$35/day, piece of crap, tranny jack.

Questions:

What could be causing the bucking...???

How far should the release fork travel to disengage the clutch...???

What are the symptoms if I have installed the clutch plate
backwards...???...I don't think I did though.

Should I just go ahead and replace the master cylinder too...???..It
has not been disturbed.

Should I swallow my pride and tow it to a Pro and pay them to fix it.

Any good, kind advice will be greatly appreciated ...This is very
embarrassing.

Thanks,

Churchy