Joined
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35 Posts
Hey,
Just turned 5th year so not licensed just fyi. They sent me and a 1st year to go fix a dealerships parking lights. I wanted a second opinion on what to do here.
2" conduit going underground from a contactor box in the electrical room. They ran 7 #10 rw90 underground to the first light pole with 2" black pipe (abs or black pvc dont know). No power on all lighting circuits at any given time. 347V circuits and I was getting <260V and lowered. Continuity between almost all wires when I toned them.
They had 2 reds, black, blue, 2 neutrals and a bond. It was obvious there was a dead short with B and C phase, breakers tripped immediately when the circuits for those were powered. Anyways we fished both ends with fish tape and rod, clearly there was a big obstruction by the base of the pole. Assumed it was just frozen. Cut the asphault and dug 5 feet deep. We put a heat gun to a poorly connected pipe. Water trickled out. Still obstructed, we dug more and found another couple. Same process, heat gun etc. We ended up cutting the pipe close to the base of the pole because part of it was cracked. We ripped the wires out, every single wire was nicked, torn or partially welded.
We removed every wire out of the pipe and fished rags to clear any obstruction. About 6 passes later it was getting fairly clear but liters of water came out of this pipe. A bit of clay but very dark water. What the hell.... Just having a hard time understanding what may have caused this. Perhaps a cracked pipe crushed the wires, let in a bunch of water/dirt?
I want to do a good job but at the same time, whos to say this won't happen again if I just repull the wire. The problem won't be 100% fixed unless you redo the entire conduit run. Anyways, my question was about reconnecting the conduit.
question: The section of pipe I removed (3' in length), how would I get that nice and tight back in as there is absolutely no play on both ends. I was thinking of a flexible couple with hose clamps on the ends but didnt know if that was rated for electrical conduit, works well with water pipe.
Just turned 5th year so not licensed just fyi. They sent me and a 1st year to go fix a dealerships parking lights. I wanted a second opinion on what to do here.
2" conduit going underground from a contactor box in the electrical room. They ran 7 #10 rw90 underground to the first light pole with 2" black pipe (abs or black pvc dont know). No power on all lighting circuits at any given time. 347V circuits and I was getting <260V and lowered. Continuity between almost all wires when I toned them.
They had 2 reds, black, blue, 2 neutrals and a bond. It was obvious there was a dead short with B and C phase, breakers tripped immediately when the circuits for those were powered. Anyways we fished both ends with fish tape and rod, clearly there was a big obstruction by the base of the pole. Assumed it was just frozen. Cut the asphault and dug 5 feet deep. We put a heat gun to a poorly connected pipe. Water trickled out. Still obstructed, we dug more and found another couple. Same process, heat gun etc. We ended up cutting the pipe close to the base of the pole because part of it was cracked. We ripped the wires out, every single wire was nicked, torn or partially welded.
We removed every wire out of the pipe and fished rags to clear any obstruction. About 6 passes later it was getting fairly clear but liters of water came out of this pipe. A bit of clay but very dark water. What the hell.... Just having a hard time understanding what may have caused this. Perhaps a cracked pipe crushed the wires, let in a bunch of water/dirt?
I want to do a good job but at the same time, whos to say this won't happen again if I just repull the wire. The problem won't be 100% fixed unless you redo the entire conduit run. Anyways, my question was about reconnecting the conduit.
question: The section of pipe I removed (3' in length), how would I get that nice and tight back in as there is absolutely no play on both ends. I was thinking of a flexible couple with hose clamps on the ends but didnt know if that was rated for electrical conduit, works well with water pipe.
