The transient shear stress response of an electrorheological fluid is investigated experimentally. The characteristic time constants of an electrorheological fluid sheared between two concentric cylinders were obtained under various electric field strengths and shear rates. Also, two experimental modes are adopted to investigate the effect of the shear flow on the dynamic behavior of the fluid; one is that the electric field is induced before shearing, and the other is the electric field is induced after shearing. From the difference in the response time between two modes, the cluster formation time were obtained. The response times were decreased with the increase of the shear rate, irrelatively of the electric field strength. The cluster formation time were monotonically increased with increase of shear rate, and thereafter, were converged with a certain value.