[mattoney]

Last year, I noticed this exact same problem too on my 107. I actually was trying to diagnose why one edge of my deck was so much higher than the other. Come to find out, there are two arms on the rockshaft (the part that rotates when you pull the handle) that are supposed to be the same height as each other. Over time, and stress, either the welds had given, or the rockshaft itself had twisted, and allowed the deck to droop chute side down. When I put a tape measure on the bottom of the frame, I figured out there was about 1" difference in height between the two. Yikes! Now I look for this on other lift handles, and I'm noticing it a lot. Even on wide frame models.

It was also during this time that I noticed the lift lever would hit the back side of the frame, in the exact same way as your's did. When I took this info to a welding shop (don't trust my own work), he measured the angles everything was mounted before he cut it all loose and welded it to a new 1018 steel rod. He also made sure to adjust things here and there so that I would get more lift. What I ended up finding out was the handle STILL hit the frame where your's is, and it didn't allow any more deck lift anyway.

I ended up having to have the thing cut apart and re-welded to tweak things, but never could get the lift out of it that I wanted. I just have a feeling that unless you grind on the frame, or on the bracket welded to that lift arm to gain more clearance, you'll never get to that last tooth on the ratchet.

I've checked this on my 122, which I know has been well taken care of, and it has the exact same situation. I haven't checked any wide-frame Cubs yet. As far as I can tell (haven't looked it up on parts diagrams yet), that ratchet is the same as what was on the Original. They've changed a few things since then (including the frame), and it's making me wonder if its just a slight mis-match between parts.

If I'm wrong and somebody has found a way, please let me know. I'd like to get to that last notch too!