Questions about American Products (Pentair) light system

[sjoefl01]

I have been trouble shooting my light systems today and I have it down to 2 possibilities.
Either something is wrong with the wire going to the light or something is wrong inside the light. The transformer and source is fine.
1. I get different readings every time I ohm back into the line going to the light.
2. I have had problems with the wiring before.
3. The light was intermittent for about a week before it went out.
4. I took the fixture out and it looks in order. There was no visible water intrusion or wire symptoms on the pool side.
Questions:
1. I really don't want to tear into that fixture until I know a little more about what is inside. One of the labels imply that there is some sort of protection circuit built into the fixture. Is this true? It would make a little more sense as to why I got different readings with the ohm meter.
2. The wire looks like it would be really tight inside of the conduit. Is it possible to pull new wire without removing the niche?

I really apreciate any help or advice I can get here. I have worked with electrical equipment enough to know that you don't tear into something until you understand it.

 

[waste]

2. The wire looks like it would be really tight inside of the conduit. Is it possible to pull new wire without removing the niche?

I don't know the internals well, nor speak in terms of 'ohms' so I'll answer this part

You seem to know where the junction box is. The light should be removable! (however, some electricians are real :ncool: and use too small conduit and too many elbows :grrrr: which makes pulling the light VERY!! hard) Tie a string or better yet a fishtape to one of the old lights wires and pull it back to the pool, then attach one of the new light's wires to the tape and yank it back through. You seen pretty electrically knowledgeable, but if you need some more detail on this - just let me know 8)

 

[MJCP]

I replaced my light last year, it was very easy to pull. I did use an electricians fishtape (home depot less than $30 I'd Guess) and as insurance I wiped some dish soap on the new wire so it would slide through easier. I would guess that if the old wire fishes out, the new wire will go in. I found my replacement light CHEAP at poolcenter.com it ran me about $90 I had bids of up to $250 at other places (Incandescent not the new ones) and it ended up taking about 2 hours start to finish to install. I figured that saved me hours of trying to guess what was wrong with the old one. P.S. When I was done I found the old one had filled with water and died.

 

[sjoefl01]

Thanks for the info.
I have convinced myself that the problem is not the wire. I have 2 lights and they are bnoth acting the same way. There must be more inside that unit than just a bulb, I am going to look at that web site. I may have a problem though. I had a guy one time tell me that you can't but lights like that any more. We'll see. I really don't want to replace the socket.
Again I really apreciate the help. I understand electricity but have no experience with pools.

 

[MJCP]

I found this very helpful, you may too

http://www.poolcenter.com/electrical_pa ... lights.htm

They probably also carry that old style light if you need to replace it.