Thanks, I think I'm going to need it . This is a straight run end to end, conduit looks like you'd pull the building down first. I don't know how I'd get the lube very far down, gotta find a pump or something I guess.
If there's any of that yellow lube used when wire was pulled, chances are, you might not get them out. That stuff is like cement when it dries. If there's any pulling points like L's, T's or boxes, see if there's a way you can cut and pull smaller portions, even try pulling one conductor at a time to see if any can come loose. I've been in situations where we've taken some of the conduit loose to get a good bite on the wires. Taking a 5lb mall to a 90 bend may help release the tension when wires are being pulled.
<snip>
Good luck on your efforts and if and when you're successful, please let us know what solution you used to get them out. That kind of information is always good to have being that's a pretty common situation.
I've pulled out tons of 1947 vintage lead sheathed telephone cable that was put in with a nasty yellow brown lube and it was all still goopy (not bad for 60 years), what a mess to dispose of. The conduit is a straight unbroken run end to end.
Heh, there's a lot of empty conduits around here that I think have already been visited by the homeless guys . I know if I find anything left like this, there's a good reason nobody has recovered it before
witnessed a job not long ago where there was an under the building run of almost 500 feet of pipe. No as builts, so who knows how many bends. They did not want to dig up the floor ( a hotel), so they finally used a very large bulldozer to pull out the conductors when all else failed. They broke several of the tugger cables before they finally were able to pull out the existing conductors (originally installed in 1951).
Also, the advice of staying clear of those tugger cables is very good advice...when they break loose, there is no telling where they wind up.
I have had to use lots of crushed ice to get old cables out the cold makes the cable less sticky if I remember type r had a outer cover that feels like roof tar had one job where we had to pull out 600' of 500 mcm 15kv cable
couldn't get it to move with anything come to find out they didn't tighten the gland on the pothead at the substation and the first 90 was full of potting compound
. This is a straight run end to end, conduit looks like you'd pull the building down first. I don't know how I'd get the lube very far down, gotta find a pump or something I guess.