[quote="Garlic Pete"]There is a level plug on the end (the area facing the front of the tractor) of that housing. It is a small, maybe 1/4" pipe plug about a third of the way up the housing. Remove that level plug, then fill with oil through the fill plug in the top of the housing until it runs out the front plug.
That oil lubricates the two shaft bearings in there as well as the engage/disengage lever and shaft, clutch and clutch brake and the gear train on the front of the pony (crank gear, cam and idler gear and the driven gear on the front of the pony clutch).
Most find in weather below about 60 degrees that if 30 wt oil is used (as is called for in the specifications), the pony clutch brake becomes ineffective, leading to grinding when trying to engage the pinion. The pony clutch is a series of steel washers which are pinched by a small dog clutch. I think the drag of the 30 weight oil is too much for the clutch brake to overcome.
Many have used 10 WT, such as automatic transmission fluid, hydraulic fluid or other light oil in there instead of the 30 wt without, I believe, any degradation in performance or damage to components. The clutch shaft itself has a couple of rather large ball bearings which are more than adequate for their service and the rest of the gear train has good sized plain bearings where I'd say pretty much any oil at all is good enough for the lubrication necessary.
All these little compartments on the Cats tend to get neglected over time, unless used by a very diligent operator. Your milky mess seems to be the standard as condensation accumulates over time.
Another important, but often neglected, compartment is the oil sump in the fuel pump. That is the little plug near the hour meter. The fuel pump has a small cam in the bottom which operates the pump lifters. There is just a small sump of oil to lubricate this cam, which is actually under some pretty high compression in lifting the pump lifters. As long as there is no leak, the oil can just stay in there forever and probably not hurt anything. A few unnoticed drips, however, can leave this compartment dry.
The cam and pump lifters can probably run a pretty long time without having much worse than accelerated wear occur. I have seen, however, a D8 which was worked for several hours with this sump dry. That fuel pump housing got hot enough to bubble the paint and turn it orange and the pump made some bad noises. The D8 was shut down and allowed to cool for several hours. After that the compartment was filled with oil and the tractor ran O. K. for the remaining couple of days use. I would think that the cam and lifters were none the better for the experience, however.
It goes without saying, of course, that the steering and main clutch release bearings should be oiled or greased (as appropriate) with each day's use. The flywheel pilot bearing and waterpump or fan support bearings are other often neglected lube point which leads to lots of time and money when they fail.
Pete.[/quote]
Who needs owners manual when their are people like you .Thanks for all the information and your time.
