I went to the local mower shop today after work to order a few new filters, one for my Tornado, one fo the oldies Corvette and one for the new(old) Mustang I will be getting and fixing when I pick it up.
The guy on the desk was a newbie, and none of the old heads were around, and he tried to sell me some longer thing with an orange looking filter paper and red top and bottom. I said that didn't look right and he said that was al he could find.
So, I have been looking online, and they all seem to have the red tops and bottoms on them!
So, can anyone point me towards a known good source for Victa air filters? Thanks in advance.
Red top and bottom with yelow paper (pink paper for the short ones) is GA spares after market. Go to some old style shops - the less flashy ones in the old asbestos roof warehouses run by old guys who have been working on them for decades.
The one I went to had the genuine Victa filters - think I was paying $3.40 for the long ones and $3.20 for the small ones. Shame he retired in december - on the plus side he found some old G3 carby parts in an old box for me shortly before going.
Now the really hard to find ones that are light blue and have 'made in Australia' on the top - very hard to find cheap
GA supply the aftermarket filters for about $1.5 - so please don't pay $12 for one
I will see what I can find. Many of the older mower shops have closed down over the years, and there are only a couple in town. Might have to try up the mountains.
I am pretty certain all of the mowers I use take the short version. And the filters I still have in them are the light blue jobs. I think I will take one with me when going around so I can see if they match up with the sizes.
The more chunky rectangular shaped filter housing takes the longer filter and the cylindrical shaped filter housing the short one.
Both the Corsair and this early powertorque Mustang should have the cylindrical housing.
What I don't get with the early PT Mustang its why they got the lower tier cylinder shaped one when Mustangs before and after got the higher tier rectangle version.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Glad you popped in mate, otherwise I would have bought the wrong sizes. Now I remember I once bought the longer filter for the corvette, and it only fit without the foam sponge. With the new(old) PT Mustang I just thought "Yeah its a powertorque = long filter).
Just regarding the 'tiers' you spoke of, I would have thought the cylindrical ones were higher tiers, as the one on the Corvette has jagged column and white painted headings for each area on the throttle, while my Tornado has a square chamber, straight throttle shaft with a sticker. Of course I haven't seen one of the earlier square boxes, so this might explain the cost cutting involved here.
Here's some pics showing various versions I have from over the years.
Pic 1 First type from late 70s that appeared on higher tier models like the Victa 500 Twin, VC Mustang, VC Sport and Auto Drive. The rest with plastic G4/LM carburettor got the round one with steps like the Corvette. Note the steps in this one and pointy filter cap. This cap will fit on later flatter capped square housings like in the following pictures.
Pic 2 this one is on my 1980s side pull full crank Mustang and also has the stepped slot but flat cap.
Pic 3 on my 1980s SPFC Powerplus self propelled. This has the straight slot.
Pic 4 showing the round type housing on my green early powertorque Mustang with straight slot. My SPFC steel deck mower also features this housing.
Pic 5 square housing on later 1980s powertorque Mustang. Note slightly different print to earlier straight slot housing on the Powerplus from pic 3. This type was also used on the Vortex and presumably the Mustang GTS (basically a white Vortex) that came after it in 1987. Note: many upper tier steel deck models and all thumb latch alloy deck models from the late 1980s received this one as well. It seems at some stage during this era, they dropped the round one altogether as I have an entry model green steel deck powertorque with this square controller.
Pic 6 a printed version from a later model from the 1990s sometime. The transfers varied over time as well.
I'm glad we brought all this up as I never noticed a lot of these details myself until now
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
You would never work it out from the ones I sort out, I grab the nearest snorkel that will fit and that is what it gets. I just buy lots of long and short filters whenever I see a good price
Well there you go. Stepped square boxes. I knew about the straight ones, but again didn't know about the straight round boxes. That sticker from picture 6 is the same as the one on my Tornado.
Given that the round box seemed to have gone out sometime in the 80s, it is a testament to these engines that they still sell the small filters in mainstream mower shops.
Sapper, the short round box lived on into the late 90's on things like the base Pace models (bare bones to the point of no decomp valve) and vantage models
But it is still a testament, seeing as how you can't buy new filters for many 3 year old bunnings specials
