Removing Old Wiring From Conduit

duke

I an attemping to remove old wiring from steel conduit.
The building is a 3 story Apartment Complex.
The wiring is 30 years old , one of the legs opened up.
Problem is that the wires will not come out of the conduit.
I beleive that over the years that they have become stuck to
the sides of the conduit.
There are three 6 gauge wires and 2 12 gauge wires in the conduit.
The conduit is 1 1/4 inch steel about 80 foot long .
The conduit is horizontal for 50 foot, under concrete , then go vertical for
30 foot. There appears to be two 90 deg bends in the conduit.
What is the best way to free up these cables?
What can be used to lubricate these cables?

What about CableFree CF-128, mfg be PolyWater ?
Is there something else just as good , or better?

Thanks
Duke

mdshunk

On ocasion, I have had old conductors suck pretty hard. From time to time, I find a junction box in the middle of the run with a splice that I didn't know about, and that sorta makes you feel dumb. I have dumped a little wire lube down the pipe and blew it through with some compressed air. I don't know if that ever offered me any help. More often, I've resorted to the brute strength method, and put either a Kellems grip or a Chicago type grip on a conductor and jacked it out with a comealong. If you get one conductor out, the rest normally come pretty easily. Some of the old R and RH type conductor insulation would fuse pretty tight to the inside of the conduit. If there was ever a conductor had a "blowout" and shorted to the pipe, it can sorta spot weld itself in place at that point. You really need some mechanical pulling assistance when this is the case. If possible, pull them out from down below, and let gravity work to your advantage.

steveprichard

If, when you first tried pulling the wire, it moved only an inch or two, then it's probably stuck. If it pulled a foot or two, then there's probably a junction box somewhere.

I've had some success pouring very hot water in the conduit and then blowing compressed air in and looking at what comes out the other end. Do this several times till no more junk is flushed out. You can also get some leverage by wrapping wire around a piece of pipe, like a pipe bender, to help break them loose. A 15lb bottle of CO2 with a short hose works great for this.

But then again, I've spent a couple of hours trying to pull wire from rusted underground conduit and it just wouldn't budge. The wire ends up breaking a foot or 2 in the conduit. The conduit was so rusted it needed to be replaced anyway.

__________________
Steve

"Keep thee thy airspeed, lest the earth rise up and smite thee!"

duke

Thanks for the input.
Was only able to pull cable less than 1 inch, using a comealong.
But was able to remove 30 ft of the broken wire, on the top side of the conduit.
The break would be at or just before were the conduit goes
under the concrete.Will check for junction box there, will have to remove
some wall. I don't believe that there is a junction box , because there are
only 2 90 deg bends in the conduit. Will blow hot water and cable lube down
conduit to flush out conduit.

Was told by an older, retired electrician that keeping the comealong on the
wire for a day or longer could help break the cable loose from the conduit.
Kind of makes sense.

Thanks
duke