Pulling out old conductors

[stevebea]

Situation: 30 Ton RTU is being replaced and customer wants new conductors pulled in. On the rooftop there is a run of 110' with three 90's and two kicks between two LB's and I cannot budge the conductors with our tugger at all. It is a 3" GRC with four 350mcm. There is alot of dried wire lube in the LB's and I am out of ideas short of cutting GRC and then repairing it. Any ideas guy's? Thanks.
I should have stated I am trying to pull the old conductors out!

 

[masterinbama]

Polywater J and a shop vac. Vacuum the lube into the conduit and let it sit for a day.

You might end up cutting the run in the middle and pulling them out that way.

Good luck either way.

 

[infinity]

In the past we've pumped water into the conduit with a hose. Once the conductors are pulled out you can suck out the water with a shop vac.

 

[Little Bill]

Situation: 30 Ton RTU is being replaced and customer wants new conductors pulled in. On the rooftop there is a run of 110' with three 90's and two kicks between two LB's and I cannot budge the conductors with our tugger at all. It is a 3" GRC with four 350mcm. There is alot of dried wire lube in the LB's and I am out of ideas short of cutting GRC and then repairing it. Any ideas guy's? Thanks.
I should have stated I am trying to pull the old conductors out!

Are you trying to pull them all at once? Sometimes if you can get 1 out, the others will come out easier. You might also try to get some fresh lube in by blowing it in with a air hose, maybe opening up the LBs.

 

[stevebea]

Polywater J and a shop vac. Vacuum the lube into the conduit and let it sit for a day.

You might end up cutting the run in the middle and pulling them out that way.

Good luck either way.

In the past we've pumped water into the conduit with a hose. Once the conductors are pulled out you can suck out the water with a shop vac.

Thanks guy's for the quick responses! You know what I'm doing tomorrow!:roll:

 

[stevebea]

Are you trying to pull them all at once? Sometimes if you can get 1 out, the others will come out easier. You might also try to get some fresh lube in by blowing it in with a air hose, maybe opening up the LBs.

No, I was trying to pull them one at a time with the tugger and a pulley stapped to a sturdy oak.

 

[John120/240]

I remember a coworker talking about using vinegar or Coke/Pepsi. No personal

experience however.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Polywater also has a release agent for this purpose. I used it a long time ago on some cables that we could not move before we used this product. We did not spread it as shown in the instructions. It was conduits for parking lot lights and we poured in down the conduits at the pole bases and let it set for a day or so.

 

[stevebea]

Polywater also has a release agent for this purpose. I used it a long time ago on some cables that we could not move before we used this product. We did not spread it as shown in the instructions. It was conduits for parking lot lights and we poured in down the conduits at the pole bases and let it set for a day or so.

Thanks Don, I was not aware of this product.

 

[mikeames]

I remember a coworker talking about using vinegar or Coke/Pepsi. No personal

experience however.

Oh my I can only imagine the mess. Isnt coke corosive?

 

[S'mise]

Pressure washer works great

BTW, Polywater can't be any more expensive than Coke, can it?:grin:

 

[al hildenbrand]

Polywater has it's company roots in my area from back in the Eighties. I still have a couple little bity promo bottles of the stuff.

Nice product.

 

[augie47]

stevebea,
let us know :grin:

 

[stew]

ran in to this one time at a school we were remodeling. Contractor had run a drill into the rmc under the cafeteria floor. Had to pull the conductors out and they were stuck in place. about 150 ft of big 3 phase run in a 4 inch conduit with at least 3 90s. I ran hot water into the pipe at the swicthgear til it ran out of the hole blown in the pipe. we let the hot water run very slowly overnite. wire became easy to pull with a tugger in the am!

 

[stevebea]

stevebea,
let us know :grin:

Got it! I ended up cutting the GRC and conductors in the middle of the run and then broke the conductors loose with the tugger. After they were broke loose we were actually able to pull the conductors out by hand with two guy's. Thanks guy's for all the advice!

 

[Cow]

What we usually do on fire jobs where the conductors get stuck, is cut the pipe right dead center on the couplings. Then pull the conductors from both ends or keep cutting couplings if they still won't budge. Then use unions to put the pipe back together.

 

[hurk27]

I'm thinking TW and a hot roof can make it a bear to remove wires, and old cloth covered rubber or old tar impregnated conductors on a roof, a mess.

I accordion a 3" GRC once with a tugger trying to remove some TW that partially melted into the pipe from the heat of the sun, we wound up cutting couplings all the way to the roof edge before it would budge.