Brass Conduit/Niche light bond trouble

[sonar]

I am in the process of replacing a pool deck on a pool built in the '80s. The pool appears to be bonded through the niche light using brass conduit. Reading up on things, this seems like something that is not terribly uncommon. So that's fine. However, I'm having an issue.

I'm moving the deck box with the GFCI outlet to a new location in conjunction with the new patio. The wire from the existing pool light will reach, but the brass conduit was crushed in one spot with the jackhammer. I had the brilliant idea of just using a pipe cutter to remove the damaged part of the conduit all the way off of the wire, then threading the existing stub and adding new brass conduit. However, the pool light lead is trapped inside of the crushed brass conduit. Are there any ideas on how to free the wire? It's a pretty gnarly pinch, nothing I can offset by applying a vice perpendicular to the crush.

I have a fear that the wire is going to be torn and I'll be stuck buying a new light and lead.

Two follow up questions as well. I'm going to bond the pool water to the rebar using a Burndy skimmer kit. I'm assuming this does not relieve the need for me to bond the high voltage pool light, correct? Also, if I do free the pool light lead from the crushed conduit, is there a way for me to connect the brass conduit to PVC and tie-in a #8 bond wire back to the new deck box? It would be nice to avoid having to get more brass conduit.

Thanks in advance..

 

[CJadamec]

Welcome to TFP.

I'm gonna try and give you some guidance as best I know NEC allows others might have some better advice for you.

As for your current light wire being stuck in the conduit, pretty much any damage to the wire outside of the light junction box is grounds for condemning the lite. So as it sits now unless you can get that cord out of the conduit without any damage to the wire you are on the hook for a new lite. You can try to be super careful with a die grinder or hack saw to release the conduit but the damage may and probably is already done.

As for bonding of the niche you are more in luck. You don't need the brass conduit. You can run an insulated green wire to the brass niche thru the conduit for your bond connection. This is the one and only place green insulated wire is allowed to be connected to the bonding loop in the lite junction box. Current code allows for liquid tight pvc conduit to be run to a niche lite hence the allowance for the insulated bond wire to run alongside the lite cable in the same conduit.

 

[sonar]

Welcome to TFP.

Thanks for this and for the rest of your response.

While my post was in moderation, I decided to hit the conduit with an angle grinder (gently) to see if I could breach it. When I did, I found exactly what I was worried about - the lead is damaged beyond repair.

Tomorrow my plan is to get a replacement light and housing. I think I'm going to convert to 12V LED with a Hayward j-box transformer out at the deck box. That way I can use the existing 120V circuit I've pulled to that location, which is shared with an automatic pool cover. An unexpected expense, but at least it modernizes things a bit.

Assuming I go with the 12V light in the metal (Amerlite) housing, do I still need to bond that housing if I'm bonding the water through the skimmer? If not, then I can just thread the bronze conduit and convert to PVC with no concern for bonding, correct?

 

[CJadamec]

I would still run a bonding wire to the metal niche in the pool. You are already snaking a new light wire it's no trouble to pull a second wire at the same time. You can still replace the damaged conduit section with pvc.