you mean the retaining washer for the torsion spring on the white plastic ratchet? (green arrow below)

if so, you shouldn't need to take it off ... if you unwind the torsion spring tension, the spring hole fits over the washer. Standard torsion spring tension is 2 turns around the ratchet when ratchet is against the reset stop.

if you are missing the washer on a unit, pm me your address and I'll mail you one.

looks like you have grease/wd-40 on the springs ... recommend you dunk them in an alcohol bath and get the crud off so the spring coils don't stick to each other

stepper (resized).jpg

lube on the plastic is optional. It you use it, eventually someone will need to clean it off.

for plastic ratchets, clean and no lube is fine. Clean the gunk out of the ratchet hole also and you'll have smooth plastic on smooth metal.

if you use gel lube on the contact plate rivets, a really thin smear that you can barely tell it is there is all you want. If the wiper fingers need to plow thru a thicker layer, as the lube dries out the wiper reset will drag/stall (if the unit resets). Eventually someone will need to clean it off .

I shoot for "eventually" = years, not months.