Dont break it Carl! or are you going to butcher your old one?
I emailed Lings late last night to see if their 3 day estimate was right. Cant believe how long the dealer I have ordered it with say it is going to take!!!
Thanks for the concern Nick, yes I'm going to butcher the old one and got a bit carried away with my thoughts so I did this:
Firstly the good news the filter just pulls off, so you could by just the filter and then pull it off and fit it onto the pre-facelift solenoid so problem solved in the filter department (just got to get the filter now)
The possible shortage of replacement filters got me thinking as to whether the filter can be disassembled and maybe even just as an interim the filter element be replaced I therefore arrived at the following conclusion:
Intake side of filter
Vac pipe side of filter
What I thought is that a temporary filter could be made with something like extractor fan filter paper and possibly some thin felt pad, like the ones for underneath furniture etc (generally green in colour)
To de-***emble the filter cartridge some care is needed, otherwise it will break.
1. Take filter off metal vac pipe or solenoid (just pull it off). (please note that the rubber vac pipe inside may stay on the metal vac tube, it is ok to leave it there)
2. I unclipped the washer plate at the bottom of the filter, but later found that this was unnecessary.
3 This is the tricky part and you need to take your time over it, you need to remove the filter vent plug that holds the filter element in place.
Looking at the top of the filter, with a smallish flat screwdriver feed it in until you feel the centre core of the plug then start to prise the plug out, it is in quite firm so needs some effort, however to save weakening any particular area, apply a little leverage and then remove screwdriver and place in next slot and do the same until the plug comes free. In all honesty I don't think it will cause a major problem if one of the fins breaks, but it will prevent you from extracting the plug in the future, the main thing is not to damage the flange in the middle (please see picture )
4. To extract filter use small straw, cotton bud stick or similar and push out from the bottom (through small hole at bottom of filter housing.)
5. To make new filter draw around plug on extractor filter paper and cut out (don't cut around filter plug as there is a ridge that clips it all together on the rim of the plug base)
6 The filter is about 2 to 3 mm thick and therefore I would suggest using something like thin felt or similar, most of the filtration would be done by the extractor fan filter paper. Alternatively you could get some Dyson vac filters and modify accordingly.
Refitting is the reverse and just clip all together applying reasonable pressure until it clicks closed.
Maybe worth a try