Proforce Generator problem

[PhaRO]

I have one of those cheap yellow 2500 watt proforce coleman generators. It's ran pretty well but other day something started making a nasty rattling noise. Noise was for a few seconds at start up and would appear at various loads and speeds. I removed some things so I could see around the engine and couldn't find anything banging around. I next started listening to various places with a screwdriver to see where the sound was coming from. Best I was able to tell it is inside the muffler. I don't know what is inside it but figure must be some sort of baffle that is loose and at certain pressures bangs around. Not too thrilled about paying over $40 for a muffler online (1 place I found). I thought about driving a couple of screws through the muffler lol. Any ideas?

[dr_detail]

might wanna try a local lawnmower repair shop; many of the motors on generators are used in multiple applications -- besides, 40 bucks seems like a small price to pay in lieu of having to replace a generator