Fairchild Drive Unit - Oil Check and Fill

[New2Lathe]

Hello Trolls!

Working on what I believe is a Fairchild D-199-45 (4s?)…and trying to make it functional again.

Before I put power to the motor, I’d like to take the advice of Jesus and Bryan and verify that the Fairchild ‘drive unit’ is oiled appropriately.


It seems that the documentation refers to the port circled in purple as the location to add some oil. Based on Jesus’ rebuild pics, this ‘port’ seems to take a 90 degree turn into the drive unit.

The opposite port, circled in blue seems to have a hole through it, possibly for checking the level of oil. It looks like the plug should spin out…it is a 3/16 hex. Before I put some torque on this, is it a ‘plug’ as I suspect? Or, is it connected underneath to something that I would not want to ‘break free?’

In a best case, I’d like to do a ‘drain and fill’ if possible or at least, verify level and condition of existing fluid before powering this up.

It seems that there is a ‘cork’ substance in the ‘purple port’ - I’m guessing this is to keep debris out while allowing the ability to add some oil. Should I leave this cork substance undisturbed or scrape/vacuum it out of the way.

Please see pics and thank you!

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[New2Lathe]

Fill plug out!

Now to oil…

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[New2Lathe]

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Filled.

Manual calls for SAE10 and fill to 1 3/4inch below top face. This one took about 14oz today to reach that level.

Thanks!