Help! - Advice on repair

[technicolour]

Hi,

I have a Chinon 256 SXL which works fine, except the viewfinder is clouded and dirty. Upon inspection of the lens, I found that when i looked into it the little round hole in the center was covered in what looks like filth and muck, I assumed that this was not going to affect the actual film until I realised it was before the beamsplitter and the 85B filter. The lens also has bits of fluff behind the first element. Is it at all feasable to be able to take apart the lens assembley and clean it? I started to strip down the camera from the rear to see if I could reach the insides but stopped when I realised that I couldnt proceed further without getting dangerously near the motor and springy bits!

However, the zoom ring around the lens has three very small screws round it, if i remove these will I be able to acess screws the remove the lens front and reach the insides?
I cant afford the have the camera repaired by a shop, and I just wanted to know whether its not really a good idea or anything. As the camera is virtually useless with this amount of dirt on the lens, Id like to have a decent stab at getting it operational

[Nigel]

You have now seen what the lovely dampness of the UK can do. I think that it might be some sort of Mold/Fungus/Algae--or a combination of the three. It should be a simple repair. A good cleaning and lube will get you camera in tip-top shape.

Good Luck