Lift all questions -- what's this extra cable do?

Somebody has also welded an additional stop on the control lever. This stop will hold it at the full back, or "lift" location. I'm not able to pull or twist the control cable from the driver's end, and have not yet dropped the dust shield to see what the bottom end of the cable would do if the cable were free.

The reservoir is dry, sticking a coat-hanger down through the fill cap (no dipstick on this cap) revealed a quarter inch or so of (actually clean and oily) fluid on the bottom. (Anybody with a dip-stick care to tell me how far from the top of the opening the fluid should be? My book says 6 quarts total, so that'll give me a starting point if not)

Has anybody seen this modification before? I'm hoping it's a Good Thing. The other choice is that the seals started leaking and somebody needed to hold it in "lift" just to get it to stay put, so they added an extra stop. I'm hoping not (that seems more like a baling-wire fix, and doesn't explain the extra cable). I'll probably drop the dust sheild and have a look, then fill it with fluid and see what happens.

Thanks in advance for any help,
I put some pictures at: Link

As far as dirt and venting, the lift-all is a totally enclosed unit that is carried inside the torque tube (clutch housing where the cable goes in) and is driven from the rear by the counter shaft on the transmission. The cap you took off is the fill for the reservoir part of the lift-all. The control lever just goes through an access hole in the torque tube and bolts directly to the lift-all unit. There are three outlets, one on the right side (viewed from the seat) and two on the left, but they may just have a pipe plug in them and if so are hidden from view behind metal covers on the torque tube. The additional stop was welded on as Cowman noted for continuous hydraulic flow for a remote valve or to power an orbit motor.

Bob