ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Pulling out old feeder wires underground

Put some heat and time on some approved lubes and they too glue up good.

Dishwashing soap is not pulling lube.
I worked on a hospital where they used dishwashing soap to pull all the wires. Fifteen years later, the TW insulation could be rubbed off the wires with little effort. Same with gear lube, axle grease, etc. Use what's right and approved for the use. Hard to beat Yellow 77. You can go back 10 years and it'll still be relatively slick.

I hear that Vaseline wreaks havoc with latex condoms, too.

Try a little baby powder!

I have never seen Yellow 77 set up like glue and I have pulled out some runs that were 18 years old. My current favorite is Aquagel.

I have never used anything but yellow 77 to pull IN wire. This was a different situation.I was pulling out wire that has been underground since 1963. After the first one broke free the other two were easy.BTW the RHW insulation was a material called permaprene made by Hatfield. Anyone ever heard of that?

Someone would have to be holding a gun to my head before I used that yellow junk again, I always see it set up like glue.

We use 'Dyna Blue' which is water based and will evaporate almost entirely.

Clean up is also much easer.

I shall now let you all know the secret lube used by us steam-age boring old wrinkled fahrts, creaking about on our zimmer frames. This is not, I assure you, a joke, I have used the stuff for decades on old machines to ease parts together or apart. You can buy in at any 'Walmart' and it's cheap:

Bananas!!!!!!

Banana pulp, the finest and slippery-est lube known to man.
Biodegradable,
Non-toxic,
Water-soluble,
Will not age to glue.
Won't cause rust, won't affect plastic, copper, rubber, steel or aluminum.
Slippery as a Wall Street lawyer.
Can be also fed safely to Elephants.
Low calories, so any excess can be fed to the crew as a bonus.
And - it smells nice!

Alan

I would use butter and have some English muffins going so when you're done the crew can have a nice coffe break.

Alan, I remember a friend in high school whose dad told him to shove a banana in an old datsun transmission that was making all kinds of noise and was shifting hard. He said he did and to this day swears it made it act like a new transmission. I remember he did drive it for a year or two after he said he had done it.

Roger