Thanks typewriterman ill give that a go. Is the carriage that cumbersome to remove?

Uwe I appreciate the advice I was looking to remove the carriage to give the machine a good clean and also to teach myself more about service and repair. But I understand that in most situations the least medling the better.

Would anybody have any clues about where I might find service manuals. Ive scoured the web and ebay but to no avail. Any ideas about general typewriter service would be welcome too.

Thank you all for your advice.

Thanks for the replies. I was removing the platen because I have an issue with paper sheets getting stuck as I am rolling them in. They go through with a bit of force but it is damaging the leading edge of the paper. I assumed that there was some corrosion on the paper pan underneath. When I took the platen out there was indeed some rust on the chrome paper pan. I sanded it back and that seems to have sorted out the issue to some extent, I might need to have another go at it. I'm wondering if something was spilled down there as there is rust on the feed roller bars and in a few other spots. Gave under and around the platen a general brushing out while I was in there.
a couple of tips I found while i was taking it out;

Only the right side platen knob removes fully so grip the platen (as was advised by thetypewriterman above) and turn the knob and then unscrew fully and remove, the left side knob does not come out but you need to keep spinning the platen to make sure it it fully unscrewed from the left platen knob. I assume this knob does not come out due to the ratchet/line advance mechanism.

Remove the right hand clear plastic line guide, being careful not to drop the screws into the basket, also watching out for the little silver inset washers around the screws.

I also needed to remove the two screws from the character scale along the bottom of the carriage, to give it some flex and make sure i didn't damage it.

At that point the platen should slide out to the right and will squeeze out from under the eraser guard etc..

Thanks for the advice folks and I hope this post helps somebody else out as I find it difficult to find details online about maintenance and repairs. I'll come back and post some pics when I take it apart again to sand it some more. Maybe a quick youtube video.

Alan.
Ireland/Dublin.