Charcoal canister clogged

[elliotl]

I removed and tested my charcoal canister as per the TSRM & Haynes manuals. It's almost completely plugged up - with a can of duster sealed tight with tape to the canister, and the purge tube plugged, almost nothing comes out the bottom but the smell of raw fuel. Blowing into it myself I can get a little air thru.

My question is, will this hurt performance or cause problems? I've heard of people removing the canister, with a functioning canister I wouldn't do this, but should I take out the bad one? I can only seem to find used ones online, and I'm worried that these 20 year old canisters will be clogged too.