108 lift handle sticky
 

Whats the proper care and feeding of a 108 lift handle/thumb button mechanism? I had to take mine off to weld the lower end back on, and now the upper end, the thumb button on top sticks like all getout. I'm not sure the smaller finger button on the grip ever did anything, at least during my ownership. Should I just lube the crapola out of everything or is there a wiser way of going about it?

The button that you push down to lower the handle can be unscrewed and removed. Be careful there is a spring and washer under it. I would remove it and polish it up and check the side hold button and make sure it is working correctly and lube everything up real good. I use a piece of leather from and old work glove or boot and vice grips to remove the buttons with. Keeps from marring them up real bad.

wayne, when i cleaned my lift handle up, i removed it and sanded it with a fine piece of sand paper (the internal rod, that is) and to clean the inside of the lift rod itself, i used a wire bore brush on a cordless drill and PB blaster to clean the inside, and then sprayed white lithium grease in the lift handle, more so in the top and lightly in the bottom half. if you don't remove the lift handle off the tractor, you almost have to stand the tractor on it's nose to get it out the bottom. :biggrin2: both my 108 and 1200 are smooth as a babys' butt!!!!:biggrin2: good luck, jeff

I already had the innards out of the lever, because I had to get the bottom end of the rod welded. I used the tip on its nose method.

As usual, when I get done fixing something, something else is broke.
I cleaned and lubed everything, put it back together and found the little finger button on the front of the lever lying on the floor. Huh?

I'm not terribly inclined to find out why, since the lift now works better than it ever has. But I'm sure someone will ruin my fun by telling me that if I don't, I'll be driving in two gears at once and ruin my transmission.

Two gears, LOL, good one!!