Hello once again. The 54 winch fluid should get replaced and I was wondering about type. Naturally the Cat dealer parts guy had no info. (?)
I noticed they had pails of 10W hyd oil.

Not particular to Cat fluid brand so any recommendations you make are appreciated.

The tension plug I picked up is smooth sided circular plug. Looks like it just slides in. Now I wonder if anything is in the hole or if I was looking at, or I was seeing the disc the plug rides on. I will find out later.

SAE 30 TDTO (T0-4 spec)

Thank you!

I found it at O'really auto parts. $102 for a 5 gal bucket.
Time to go shopping.

Forgot the quantity!!!! takes 12.5 gallons.

Whoa Nelly.
Okay. I'm showing my age. Too bad.
My 54 winch has a sight glass at the bottom on the right side. It looks like it might take a lot less than that.
This might be interesting.
Yikes.

Well, I did some shopping and finally got the price down to about $56 a 5 gallon pail.
Now to see if I have any leaks...This ought'a be fun.

What's missing in our discussion is what model s/n your unit is. That 12.5 gallons is for a later unit. Wouldn't be surprised if yours took about half of that.

Thank you for that. I was thinking the 12.5 gallons was a bit overkill in light of a sight glass on the bottom right of the unit not looking like it could hold that amount.
This winch is easy enough to use. With the control handle in one position, the cable just continues to slowly wind on the reel non stop.
With the 50 feet of cable that was on the winch, it would never bind up, just bang the chokers as they slowly rotated around and around the drum.
Now the winch will get 100 foot of new 3/4 cable with the same 4 choker set up. Lack of a fairling to speak of might be a PITA.

That looks to be a 19Exxxx s/n model. The parts book doesn't show a fairlead option.