Cable stuck in conduit - Any tricks? (1 Viewer)

[Spook50]

Right now my shop has a 50A circuit coming from the house's panel, and soon I'm hoping to have a 100A pulled directly from the meter to the shop. There's 6-3 cable running to the shop from the house, and I know I'm going to need bigger to carry 100A. I would like to go ahead and get the new cable once I can spring for it and run it out to the shop, but the cable (there's also phone line and coax, neither of which I want or need in there) seems to be stuck good in the conduit leading from the house to the shop. There's a 90* elbow on the house, and AFAIK the conduit is a straight shot to the shop, up to the 90* elbow there (1 1/4" PVC conduit). Just pulling the phone cable, trying from each elbow, it wouldn't budge a millimeter, and my dumb ass broke the cable at both ends, not that that's a huge deal though. This leads me to think that the coax and the 6-3 is going to be damn near impossible to pull out and also damn near impossible to run larger cable for the shop. Anyone have any suggestions or tricks that might help me out? all I can think of is get a ton of that wire lube and squirt it down into the conduit as much as I can, but there's got to be a better way.

Thoughts?

 

[Trollhole]

Sounds like the conduit has been compromised. Could be that it's pinched or if your lucky sediment has gotten into the line and clogged it.

How far are we talking about?

Try putting a shop vac on one side and see if you get any suction on the other. Better yet see if you can suck anything out. That doesn't work try putting a cap on one end and drill a hole in it to attach an airline and see if you get any flow that way.

 

[45Kevin]

Dish washing soap would work. Maybe water it down a bit to get it to flow better.

90's aren't your friend with big wire. Is it PVC or metal conduit.

 

[Spook50]

Dish washing soap would work. Maybe water it down a bit to get it to flow better.

90's aren't your friend with big wire. Is it PVC or metal conduit.

1 1/4" PVC. I pulled the covers off the 90* elbows in hopes that it would make things easier to pull. No bueno. I'll try Trollhole's suggestions and see where that gets me. Hopefully I can have some luck. I'd like to just run the new wire myself to the shop, then have the electric company come out and hook the house end of it up to the meter.

 

[cody c]

The electrical company may ask for it to have aproval or inspection paperwork before re-energizing, I'd call them and see what they require.

If so you'd need an electrical permit before inspection first.

Im going off of canadain code though, might not matter where your at.

X2 on the dishsoap, and maybe put a pull string on the side thats getting pulled into the pipe before you start pulling it out, to pull the other wire in with.

 

[Spook50]

The electrical company may ask for it to have aproval or inspection paperwork before re-energizing, I'd call them and see what they require.

If so you'd need an electrical permit before inspection first.

Im going off of canadain code though, might not matter where your at.

X2 on the dishsoap, and maybe put a pull string on the side thats getting pulled into the pipe before you start pulling it out, to pull the other wire in with.

Good point on inspection stuff. You're probably right, but I'll find out for sure when I call them. It might be worth it to just have it professionally done just in case there are any issues with the conduit, then I can have it fixed on the spot.

 

[wob]

Call in a pro. No need to bugger something up or kill yourself when dealing with electricity.

 

[nspctr1]

not to circumvent the correct procedure but if it's hooked up to the house panel, why can't you just throw the breaker to isolate it. If it's stuck, cut it, PVC is cheap and you are buying new wire any way.

large wire in PVC is a bitch to pull, you may be able to take a pipe cutter and cut the PVC on both sides of the 90 and pull it from both sides then coupling it back together but again PVC is cheap. I dont think after this long your going to get it to break free.

.02

 

[-Spike-]

You say there are covers on the 90's. Those are probably pulling elbows- if so, you aren't going to pull through them, you have to pull from them. The only 90 you're going to pull through is a street elbow- a gentle curve. Even those will cause difficulty.

 

[toy4xfun]

the other thing the PO might have done, is just used PVC coming out of the ground, and direct buried the rest. so i would try the vac or compressed air to make sure the wires are in conduit all the way.

also if the PO used the old yellow 77 wire lube, it has been known to dry up like glue inside the conduit.

 

[fj40charles]

If you shop is detached from your house, I'm guessing the 6/3 wire is not up to code.

You'll need 2 hots, neutral, and a ground to wire it correctly for a subpanel in detached shop. Subpanel must have ground/neutral unbonded and requires a gounding rod.

 

[pepsilvr]

If you shop is detached from your house, I'm guessing the 6/3 wire is not up to code.

You'll need 2 hots, neutral, and a ground to wire it correctly for a subpanel in detached shop. Subpanel must have ground/neutral unbonded and requires a gounding rod.

Would it still need a grounding rod if a ground was pulled from the main panel?

 

[Spook50]

Would it still need a grounding rod if a ground was pulled from the main panel?

That's how it is now. 6-3 wire with a bare copper ground that's grounded through the house's panel. In the shop there's a subpanel now, which I'm going to replace with a 100A main service panel (utilizing a 100A main breaker, though I think having a main breaker is required anyway for a main panel) The guy from the elec. company came out to look at it yesterday, and after investigating the options, they're going to pull directly from the pole that's 6' behind the shop, and just put a 200A capacity meter on the shop. It'll be much cheaper and less labor intensive to go that route. He quoted me $434 to do it, though acquiring and installing the service panel in the shop is on me. I will also need to install two 5/8"x8' copper ground rods 8' apart for the shop to be up to code for having its own electrical supply.

 

[toy4xfun]

Would it still need a grounding rod if a ground was pulled from the main panel?

that depends on the jurisdiction, here it is a no no to put a ground rod on a sub panel. the ground for sub panels have to go back to the main incoming power or main panel.

that said, the NEC has taken a liking to more grounds the better.

 

[Spook50]

that depends on the jurisdiction, here it is a no no to put a ground rod on a sub panel. the ground for sub panels have to go back to the main incoming power or main panel.

that said, the NEC has taken a liking to more grounds the better.

I'm going to go ahead and install the ground rods for the shop ASAP just so it can be done and ready for when I put the new panel in and continue with rewiring everything. Last thing done will be having a meter put on the shop, and I'll just leave the high current breakers switched off in the meantime so I don't overload anything. Until the new meter is put on the shop, it'll be grounded via the rods and the ground wire leading back to the house, so at least I know it'll be good

 

[fj40charles]

that depends on the jurisdiction, here it is a no no to put a ground rod on a sub panel. the ground for sub panels have to go back to the main incoming power or main panel.

that said, the NEC has taken a liking to more grounds the better.

The subpanel has a ground that goes to the house as well as ground via the gound rod. YMMV depending on where you live.

 

[toy4xfun]

i am going to drive three ground rods, 1" copper clad ground rods when i do the electric in my building.

 

[Spook50]

i am going to drive three ground rods, 1" copper clad ground rods when i do the electric in my building.

I guess you can't have too many when it comes to properly grounding

Then again, I don't want to turn my steel shop into a giant lightning rod

 

[toy4xfun]

my shop is wood, and i have the rods already, they were slated for the dumpster, and they are 10' long.


so i will use them.

lightning will strike when there is a difference of potential no mater what your grounding system is.

 

[Koffer]

With them running a new svc to your shop are they going to charge you a different Kwh price ?
When i did this they charged me more as it was a "non living quarters" which equals they charge more per Kwh also they made me buy a new transformer on the pole as the old one was "too small" as it fed 3 "houses" . one "house" hasn't been lived in for over 30 years and no svc since then It fell down at least 10 ago.
Power company told me someone might move back in to the house so I got to buy a new transformer since its a business account , they would cover it if I was putting in a house .

But they were nice enough to supply me with a meter pan for free

Good luck with it