Lazy Boy sticks open?

for awhile simply rocking back and forth and pulling the handle would break something loose and the footrest would close. finally that stopped and jammed open and even when I turned it over and manually forced the ratchet loose the footrest would not close all the way no matter what I did with the handlle or how hard a tug I put on it and did not want to break the handle. No obvious rust wear markss or looose parts fell out....HELP !..is WD-40 ok for Lazyboy afterall?