An old chap gave me this the other day, I was wondering if this is an original Flea Air Filter .

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Dave

email (option): davemb42@yahoo.com

Hi, Dave looks like a flea filter to me, have checked in manual also.

Thanks Scott , pleased with that. My filter hasn't the embossed writing,it has a hole in the centre where possibly a rivet held a plate ?

Dave

email (option): davemb42@yahoo.com

Well done! These maze filters are hard to find. I have the embossed type on my Flea but then I have the other type with the plate on my ML. I've never really worked out which is the correct type so just happy to have both. But since Arnaud (from this site, who is a Flea guy) made the repro makers plates, I assume his research suggests that the one with the plate is correct......Maybe he'll respond? Ron


image album upload

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Hi all
Dave, i'm not convicted at all and maybe i'm wrong!! But their is evidences on some pictures of use of "airmaze type filter" as said on the flea parts list like on the James ML part list, Airmaze is a brand who actualy made filters again, there is a pics on the "Proud of war" Royal enfield book with some flea at the redditch factory and when you zoom on it you clearly see the "airmaze" plate at the rear with the central rivet. Stuart bray also have a NOS James ML engine with this filter and i discover that this combination of carb/ strangler/ filter was found also on generators , and on the "prototype" of the paratrooper "rototiller" all are airmaze for sure. very hard to see on period pics!!
i read somewhere on an original paper that british army ask for standardisation of all the 2 strokes carbs to simplify the maintenance, and the Villiers is retained,and as Villiers Kaki paint all the parts i thinks that is the reason that the flea carb was Kaki, this carb is too bigger for the flea!!! but adopted.
about your air filter, it's a cooper ( cooper was a brand also) , not a airmaze, but as we have no more evidence or no real proof ( just some pics are not a real proof) maybe it's good???!!. but the part list say Air maze type.... some bikes found at 95% original have also airmaze type...
it's the first cooper i see like that, the top with marking was welded, the ones we all know are with tabs riveted...
if someone have more informations???
Arnaud

email (option): leger-arnaud@wanadoo.fr

I have a scan of a factory photograph here that clearly shows the Air Maze plate on the filter. The bike on this scan is #7493.

Cheers,
Jan

email (option): wd.register@gmail.com

So Dave. Do you want to sell the one with the hole in it? Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Its no good Ron, its got a hole in the middle

email (option): davemb42@yahoo.com

Thanks Arnaud , its probably worth keeping hold of .Could it have been fitted to another WD motorcycle or could it have possibly been fitted to a stationary engine like a generator of something similar ?

Dave

email (option): davemb42@yahoo.com

Dave as far as I can think, the only other WD bike that used the maze filter is the James ML and as far as I can see, it also has the 'Air Maze' filter. I guess those 'Cooper' filters were used post war on whatever Villiers engines where fitted with the maze type filter. To that end I'll be correcting the one on my Flea. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Flying Fleas carried on in Service well into the 1950s, is it possible that production of the wartime filter stopped and the War Office sourced a replacement elsewhere?

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

That's possible Rob, but the filter was not required as a replaceable item unless of course it fell off or got damaged. The post war civy Flea didn't use the maze filter at all. However the post war civy ML did and they might well have been the Cooper made filter. God knows when either company started or stopped manufacture. Judging from what I've just learnt though. The 'Air Maze' filter is correct for both models during war time production. Ron

PS. a google search reveals that Coopers(combined with Fiaam) and Air Maze are both still leading companies in air and oil filtration, and Air Maze boast about 8 decades of production.

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com