the_content_rss – not pulling data.

I’ve got a bit of a problem with a script I used. Here is the code that worked fine up until the recent 2.1 build.

$excerpt = get_the_excerpt(true);
    $excerpt = str_replace("\n",'',$excerpt);
    $excerpt = str_replace("\r",'',$excerpt);
    $excerpt = str_replace("\t",'',$excerpt);
    $excerpt = preg_replace('/\s\s+/', ' ', $excerpt);
    $output .= apply_filters('the_excerpt_rss', $excerpt);
    $output .= "\n";

Prior to the new 2.1 build it worked fine and would pull content even if there was no defined excerpt.

Now it’s not working unless a excerpt is defined for each post. This new code should work – but doesn’t pull anything.

$excerpt = get_the_content(true);
    $excerpt = str_replace("\n",'',$excerpt);
    $excerpt = str_replace("\r",'',$excerpt);
    $excerpt = str_replace("\t",'',$excerpt);
    $excerpt = preg_replace('/\s\s+/', ' ', $excerpt);
    $output .= apply_filters('the_content_rss', $excerpt);
    $output .= "\n";

I’m finding conflicting information and just need some advice. I’ve tried pulling out the str_replaces, etc… I’ve tried different variables in the function names, no go.