A minor screw up on my part, LOL

I have an old recliner which is basically "where I live" when sat down in the house. I guess about year and a half ago I damaged the foot gear such that it's a struggle to get the thing folded back in. I got tired of messin with that so today I dumped it upside down and looked it all over, then got a cut off wheel and cut the 4 links going to the foot rest stuff.

Well now, LOL, I can struggle it upright with the hand lever, but it doesn't lock. So basically, "it's reclined" all the time. This is not terrible, I can sit down into it, Geez.

On a side note, if I EVER get my hands on the engineers who design this crap..................