Bicycle Mechanics - Degreaser in brake cable housing?

17 year old bike with original housings. Can a bit of degreaser be run through the housing to clean it? Purple Power, straight, diluted? Thoughts please.

I know new housings aren't too expensive, but shops are closed tomorrow and I'd like to try things to get my rear brake working smoothly before commuting Monday (car free, no other options).

A shot of WD40

I like Tri-flow for cables. Degreaser sounds like a bad idea to me. WD-40 ain't too bad if you have it around.

I'm not sure what you mean by "degreaser be run through the housing to clean it".

Is this a road bike with a cable housing run from lever to brake?

If you're gonna pull all the housing offa the cable, probably OK to wipe the cable down with a rag with your degreaser on it and then lube the cable before putting it back in the housing. Once again, Tri-Flow is my favorite for this but other lightweight oils are fine.

Ended up using the WD-40 on the housing and greased the cable after that. Quick squeeze test says the problem is handled...but I also snapped a spoke today and don't have a spare...so I'll not go on a ride tomorrow and hope I can find a solution to that issue by Monday afternoon.

Generally, the more spokes per wheel you've got the better off you are. I've ridden for a couple weeks with a broke spoke on 36 spoke wheels. I had to be very careful, because even after a little tweaking with a spoke wrench to lessen the wobble I had to leave the brakes quite detuned.