Yes i just did it to 2 leather chairs. The electric motor and pistion attached the the chair mechanism.turn the chair over So that you can see the very bottom of it. Then carefully remove two side of the staples and flip it back. Like peeling a banana. You can ask O just take the whole thing off the bottom Wont see it anyways. There's Cotter pins that hold the motor to the mechanism in the Front and in the back. Once you remove the mechanism that opens and closes that share it'll just open and close like any other recliner. The mechanism weighs about 10 pounds. It whether just pushes that share open and closed and once it's been disattach and pulled out you can just sit in a chair and leaned back and flip it open and close it just like a regular . You don't need a hand on the side to be able to do any those things.