A few things first.
1. The film counter should reset to zero whenever you open the film back. (Don't open the film back with film in the camera unless you want to remove the film. And usually you will have rewound the film first.) If it does not, there may be something wrong with the film counter. Without any film in the camera the counter should advance when the winding leaver is advanced. You should not need film in the camera for this.
2. When you reach the end of the roll of film the force needed to advance the film increases dramatically. You'll know you're at the end of the roll. If you decide to force the winding leaver you could cause mechanical damage to the winding train, or you could tear the film or pull it out of the film cannister.
In your case you may have a faulty film counter. Unload the film. Check that the counter resets to zero. Advance the winding leaver and check that the counter advances one number. Trip the shutter and repeat. You should be able to advance all the way to 36 frames. Open the back and the counter should reset to zero.
If the counter does not advance one frame for every wind, and shutter trip - say it advances too quickly or does not advance, that you have a problem in the frame counter mechanism.
If you are at 36 with film in the camera and the winding leaver can still be advanced with normal force, you will not damage the winding mechanism by advancing past 36. The counter should just stay on 36.
It's only when the force to operate the winding leaver increases dramatically, that forcing it to advance will cause problems.
Regards
Chris
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