spa light replacement. old cord does not want to come free. suggestions?

[Dan-H]

Title pretty much says it all.

I'll try to post some pictures.

i want to pull a pull cord with the old cable. I was able to pull towards the pool side a couple of inches, but wanted to pull it back the other way and it is not budging.

ideas?

should I call an "expert" what would they do?

 

[Dan-H]

googled a bit and the suggestions were all over the map, one suggestion was to pull the ground cord first and I think I'll try that. I'm going to buy some thinner pull cord than what I was planning.

Likely try again next weekend.

 

[Meadow]

googled a bit and the suggestions were all over the map, one suggestion was to pull the ground cord first and I think I'll try that. I'm going to buy some thinner pull cord than what I was planning.

Likely try again next weekend.

Ground cord? You're not talking about the niche bonding wire, are you? The lighting cable is a composite cable consist of 3 conductors.

Title pretty much says it all.

I'll try to post some pictures.

i want to pull a pull cord with the old cable. I was able to pull towards the pool side a couple of inches, but wanted to pull it back the other way and it is not budging.

ideas?

should I call an "expert" what would they do?

That’s exactly how I pulled the new cable. In fact, my very first cable pulling experience. Thanks to some youtube videos.

I cut the old cable at the fixture side and soldered the wires to the new cable. There isn’t much cable slack at the junction box making it almost impossible to get a good start. I coiled the conductors onto a wrench for convenience and off it goes. Fyi, our junction box is about 15’ from the Spa light and about 20’ away from the pool light. So YMMV!

You will need another pair of hands to feed the cable and some cable lubricant, too.

An electrician will normally use fish tape or a string when pulling cables.

 

[Dan-H]

Ground cord? You're not talking about the niche bonding wire, are you? The lighting cable is a composite cable consist of 3 conductors.

Sorry for not being clear. Yes, the niche bonding cable can be pulled fore/aft.

That’s exactly how I pulled the new cable. In fact, my very first cable pulling experience. Thanks to some youtube videos.

I cut the old cable at the fixture side and soldered the wires to the new cable. There isn’t much cable slack at the junction box making it almost impossible to get a good start. I coiled the conductors onto a wrench for convenience and off it goes. Fyi, our junction box is about 15’ from the Spa light and about 20’ away from the pool light. So YMMV!

You will need another pair of hands to feed the cable and some cable lubricant, too.

An electrician will normally use fish tape or a string when pulling cables.

Thanks for the suggestions. I need to think this through. I'm estimating the cable run length is 60 to 70 foot depending on where they ran the conduit.

My initial thought.

Use the the niche bonding cable to get a pull line into the conduit, and also pull some lubricant into the conduit. I would pull from junction box to the spa so any gunk in the conduit might get cleaned out too. Then with the bonding cable out, my thought ( hope? ) is the pool cable would move more freely. The bonding cable looks like 8 gauge, and the pull line is thinner so that would free up some space so the larger diameter light cable should have some more room.

I like your idea of cutting and soldering the new cable to the old and using the old as the pull. I think I would want to see how freely things moved.

Not sure if I would pull the light cable first and then the bonding cable, or try to pull them both at the same time. I am thinking both at the same time might be the best way.

I took a break yesterday and re-installed the light back in the spa and refilled it, so this is now next weekends project. This will give me time to think about it some more and get some lubricant.

Thanks for your suggestions. The last thing I want is to break the cable and not have any pull lines in place so we'll see how the first step goes.