how to clean out a plugged muffler?

[zaebra]

my '84 aero 50 appears to have hosted some sort of insect that uses mud to make its home. consequently, my muffler was totally plugged up. i shoved a screwdriver through the plug (carefully) and opened a hole, but i would like to clean it out more thoroughly than that. is it safe to run water through the muffler to clean it (obviously when it is disconnected from the engine)?

[Meatball]

I would just beat it with a rubber mallet to knock the mud loose and shoot it with air afterwards. If you have the resources, toss the whole thing onto a campfire and cook the oily gunk inside away as well. I fabricated up a make-shift cone tip that fits on my leaf blower and fits right into the engine end of the muffler.....she blows everything out when cooled off.

I don't know about water in there. It may rust out the baffles? Not sure. Never tried.

[noiseguy]

You can use water, you just need to dry out the pipe when done. Reattaching it and running bike will do it.

Note that this just removes the dirt from mud daubers. The real issue is oil and grime, and for that the campfire method is probably the most straightforward.

[zaebra]

awesome, thanks! now to find me a campfire..

also, thanks very much for the carb cleaning advice and tutorial. it worked great! now i get to do it again, because i neglected to de-rust the gas tank before firing it up in my eagerness, so it promptly dwindled and died and won't restart. this time around i'll add a fuel filter after cleaning the tank, though. progress!

[patthesoundguy]

Baking a pipe in a campfire is quite entertaining. The last pipe I did shot flames out both ends like a jet engine for almost 45 min. Just make sure you let the pipe cool completely on its own don't quench It with water.

[iNOLIP808]

You can use water, you just need to dry out the pipe when done. Reattaching it and running bike will do it.

Note that this just removes the dirt from mud daubers. The real issue is oil and grime, and for that the campfire method is probably the most straightforward.

If i throw my PG fatty in a campfire will the baffle be ok?