Newbie question, what dipsticks are these?

An 8LL Eaton I'm about 99.99% sure does not have a dipstick. It'll be a plug on the side of the transmission, about half way up the housing. Likely be on the driver's side.

 

Does it run seperate trans fluid, or off the engine oil?

 

Pretty sure an 8LL is the same type of setup as a regular Eaton 10, 13, 18 etc. Never heard of any transmission being lubricated by the engine's oil before. Maybe OP got confused because I've heard some people will run engine oil in their transmissions.

 

No, the transmission does NOT run off the engine's oil. Transmission will take 4 (give or take) gallons of gear oil, both filled AND checked through a plug in the side. Fill 'till it spills. Check with your finger...oil level should be pretty close to the hole.

As for the OP, the metal cap is your oil fill, and the yellow one is the oil dipstick. As far as other concerns about the dipstick popping out, it doesn't. Before my overhaul, I had enough blowby...enough pressure in the crank case...to blow the fill plug out. First time it happened, I ran it over and punctured a drive tire (Since then, I have it safety wired so even if it DOES pop out, it dangles rather than falling to the ground). The "per square inch" pressure being exerted on the much larger surface area of the fill plug allows it to be pushed out at lower psi's than the much smaller dipstick tube. Besides, even if the dipstick tube DID pop up to relieve pressure, it wouldn't go very far...too much stick still in the hole.

 

I'm going to have to climb under my FL tommorow and see. For myself this plug.

 

Here's an 8LL photo from Eaton's website. Fill/level plug is right there on the side.

 

Being a long time parts guy & driver...there is not a manual trans that has a dipstick. Older transmissions sometimes used motor oil, but have gone to synthetic oils now. Your trans and rear-end levels should be checked at every service. Some Allison autos have a sight gauge, but I don't know about the new auto / auto-shift.
I DO know I'll never drive one again.

 

Automated transmissions are not automatic transmission. They are manual transmissions with computer controlled shifter. Virtually no otr, non-vocational class 8 has an automatic transmission.

Manual transmissions do not have dipsticks, and use SAE-90 for lubrication. Unlike an internal combustion engine, it is not possible to burn oil either through leaky valves or bad rings. The only way to lose oil is through a major leak at either the front or rear seal. Therefore it is not necessary to check oil level on a daily basis. They check the level at pm.

 

Lots of newer automobiles with automatic transmissions do not have a dipstick to check the transmission fluid anymore. They have a plug on the side of the transmission, which you can
check, with the motor running and the A/T in park or neutral. Don't know about auto-shift transmissions, but on cars with an automatic transmission, the dipstick is red, not yellow.

And no transmission I have ever heard of ran off of the motor oil; manual, auto-shift, or automatic.