On Sun, 21 Aug 2011 10:26:26 -0700, "David Farber"
wrote:

Rick wrote:
"David Farber" wrote in message
...
The model number is 113.179255.

A picture of the filter is he
http://webpages.charter.net/mrfixiter/index.html


The nut you see at the top of the picture won't budge. Thus, I cannot
remove the filter. I called Sears and they said it should come off
easily without any tools. The vacuum is less than a year old and
only used a couple of times. I don't think I ever removed the filter
before. You can see how mangled that plastic nut is now after trying
every tool the in drawer to remove it. (Why would they use a plastic
nut?) I must be missing something really obvious. One other thing I
should mention, the owners manual shows the parts blow up which
includes a "filter nut lever." I didn't see anything like that
attached to or near the nut. Thanks for your replies.
--

David Farber
Los Osos, CA


Take a look at a new filter....

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...313944142 390

Looks like the lever nut was already off, the filter is just stuck,
and you've mangled the stud...

I see the new filter with the hole at the end. I really can't see the end of
the stud on what I have here. Is it metal? Wouldn't it have threads on it?
That would be pretty easy to notice if the nut were missing, no?

Should be, but as others have said, the nut is a one-armed "wing nut". It
should be pretty easy to notice that it's not there. ;-)

Here's a scenario I could imagine. If the vacuum cleaner does not come
preassembled, then I mount the filter on the stud. Next, I cannot find the
wing nut in the parts bag or it just gets lost. Needing to secure the filter
onto the stud, I grab something from my workbench that fits securely on the
end of the stud. On the other hand, if it does come preassembled, I really
can't think of any explanation for this.

You're probably close. Someone lost the nut (mine has fallen off, into the
muck below) and replaced it with something close. ...and stripped the mess.
You'll likely have to force it off, somehow, or cut it off and replace the
parts necessary. Parts should be available because they built millions of the
things (and those with the same parts). Here's a link to the manual:

http://www.hammerwall.com/Download_Manual/44725/