From your description this is simply a noise reduction filter.
There are three capacitors, one 0.1uF and two 0.005uF.
Ahhhhhh. of course. X2 is the safety rating not times 2.
Thanks jim. Most helpful. I have a little experience dabbling in guitar amps, so "death cap" comes to mind.
The unit I'm trying to fix is a single phase 2nd hand workshop dust extractor (glorified vacuum cleaner).
Presumably the filter Is to stop the unit introducing noise rather than the other way round.
I got the unit as part of a job lot, when i tried to use it, it was throwing a breaker switch,
I initially thought the power chord needed replacing but upon opening i saw the capacitor had blown its top.
Presumably from what you are saying pollyprop/ceramic caps in a 'Y' configuration would be fine as long as they meet the appropriate ratings including X2/y.
I'm also thinking for test purposes it would be ok to run the unit momentarily without the caps in place to confirm they were the source of the short?
Presumably no ground is necessary for the motor to run, just the chassis safety ground.