Chris, You are right. I did find the fill plug there and as it would have been a lot more trouble to squeeze the gear lube through a small tube I removed the drive motor to clean the cavity and inspect the pinion drive gear as well. It took 7 1/2 quarts to fill it to the level required. Thanks for the input.
Indy,
How old is your truck? Is the steering done through gears or a chain?
Either way, if you turn the gearbox so the wheel is pointed away from you, the upper plug should be just under the gear/chain to the left side. To be honest, this is tucked up in there so that it would really be easier and take less time for you to pull the motor off and fill the gearbox from the top. It is not really that big of a task, and you only need to pull it up enough to get a funnel down in there. We have done this without even disconnecting the electrical from the motor.
some of these drive units just used gasket sealer but sometimes they would come from the factory with a gasket on them but the number would not show up in the manual.
if there is a gasket on the cover plate though and you just feel better having one, go to the parts store like NAPA and get some gasket material and make yourself one :o)
I am curious about checking the drive unit gear lube level in one of these SLT30s and am unable to find an upper plug or weep hole. I would like to change the fluid and would like to know the gear lube capacity as well. Surely we don't have to remove the drive motor to add fluid after draining the old gear lube using the drain plug, or do we?
anarobic works great try it you'll like it ,mikey like,s it;s locktight makes it
just use a good gasket maker and "fagitaboutit" it will be fine