Even if you do this you may still have a too rich fuel mixture , Which probably is what ruined the the CAT, in the first place.
There is likely a reason it is clogged. When I had an 86 Ford F150 fuel injected 5.0L V8 years ago, at some point it started running so rich that I was lucky to get home. The spark plugs were black and sooty and it still ran rich after replacing them. I pulled the vacuum hose off of the fuel pressure regulator and fuel came out. Apparently the diaphragm in the fuel pressure regulator had blown, so I was sucking fuel right from the vacuum hose into the engine. It ran fine after replacing the fuel pressure regulator.
But sometime later I was heading up to Wisconsin and it did not seem to want to go over 55 mph on the expressway, and down to 45 once off onto a 2-lane hwy. I opened the hood and the exhaust manifolds were glowing cherry red. The cats had plugged up with carbon. The Ford dealer quoted $1500 and suggested trying Midas which initially quoted about $350 until they figured out that it had dual cats, and bumped that up to $700.
So even if you pound or rod out the carbon from the cat, you have to figure out why your engine was running so rich that the cat plugged up.
No, I tried it on my 1993 high mileage truck and it will only dent the case. But if it supposedly worked then wth? why not? But I would pb blast the nuts connecting the cat to the muffler pipe and loosen them. Mine were realy rusty and it worked after letting it soak overnight. Then with the two pipes disconnected the muffler side will sag or you could remove the hanger if it didnt sag like mine.(take hook welded to muffler pipe and move it out of the rubber part) now you have a desicion to make, I drilled a 1/4 inch hole thru the catlyst and it was a bit more aggressive sounding. or you could spray a cleaner like seafoam or carb cleaner in there let it sit a bit and start her up. The cat heats up ALOT clogged and unclogged so whats clogging it has got to be pretty tough. Best of luck this should take a total of about an hour or two depending on tools and handiness and cost 0 to 8$. Idk what carb cleaner goes for
Converters don't go bad on their own. There's always an underlying problem. Get the engine problem fixed. Then have a muffler shop install an aftermarket converter. They run about $350. Read this article on converters and why they go bad
ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com/catalytic...
Hammering the answer to the catalytic converter will do little to fix it.
Get an after market cat for a couple hundred bucks. 1700 indeed.
You can just take it apart yourself, and save $1700.
Took my 6-cylinder '97 Plymouth Voyager in for service. 140,000 miles. Sputtering now when asked to go over 40mph--it feels like it will either stall or worse. Also sputtering when going uphill. Service guy basically gave it last rites. Said a 17-year old Voyager, probably a clogged catalytic converter, showed me black carbon deposit coming out of the tailpipe. Minimum $1700 to take it apart, find the clog and fix it. That's way too much. Ran across another guy with a '98 Voyager, said he had the same problem, told the same thing by a service guy. Instead, he put it up on a ramp, went underneath and banged on the converter with a hammer, really hard. Said it shook loose whatever was blocking the exhaust. He suggested I tried that, since I had nothing to lose with a 17-year old vehicle.
Could this possibly work? Are there any other solutions I could try on a vehicle this old? I'm really trying to delay another car payment. Other than having no air conditioning, the van still runs pretty good. Could the hammer fix work?
