I have a job I am trying to get a run of wire through an existing underground 3/4" conduit. There are wires already in the conduit. I tried to get a fish tape through it but it is stopping underground somewhere. I tried to pull on one of the existing wires to use it as a "pull wire" but they don't budge. I tried to go to the other end and "hook" my other fish tape, and now that fish tape is stuck. I don't want to pull too hard in risk of damaging the existing wires in the conduit. I'll probably cut my fish tape and leave it in there:( I knew I was risking getting it stuck, but had no other alternative at the time. The house is probably 70 + years old and I don't know when the wiring was done. It is in a historical district, and in it's time, was a mansion. Still it's a very nice house with a very large yard.
The pipe terminates outside in a 6x6x4 junction box underground, flush with the grass. There is another empty 3/4" conduit leaving the j box, seemingly going in the same direction I want to go. I pushed a 100 ft. fish tape in it and could feel where it might be going through a 90, but cannot locate it anywhere. I've looked under the house, in the yard etc. Can anyone think of a idea I could use to locate this pipe? The original one goes under an asphalt driveway, and I'm assuming this one does too, since it is headed in that direction and is only about 6 ft. from the edge of the driveway, and I feel no resistance when pushing the fish tape, until I reach the end of the fish tape( 95 ft. in the ground). Digging is sort of out of the question, since there are scrubs lining the length of her house where the conduit may be headed. ( by the way, this is where the "troublesome" conduit is coming out too). If I could find this conduit, I possibly could use it for my homeruns back to the panel. I've thought about maybe getting a helper to see if he could here the fish tape, while I twisted it and moved it around. Anybody got any other suggestions maybe? This is to be a "high tech" job for a "high end" customer, and I've just started. I did caution the customer that there might be problems if I could not get the wire through the conduit, before she signed the contract, but I was hoping for it to go easy:(
I guess my "gut" feeling was right. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have to go back Monday or Tuesday to try again. Thanks for the input.. Steve...
