Solved, thanks Lincoln Appliance NZ.
I made up a locking ring tool, applied CRC to locking ring and kept on tapping (hard). It is a normal thread - counter clockwise.
The problem with lint was that the lint remover comb was full. We live near the beach and sand had started to block the comb and then lint backed up and created a mushy lint mess.
Stuartc24
December 2008