Has anyone replaced the wiring inside the bow pulpit for the bow light? I can’t seem to get the new wire to feed inside the pulpit tube.
Relaxing bow light wiring
- Thread starter Galind
- Start date
I usually tape my new wire to the old wire and then pull it through. If you have already pulled your old electric wire out, you can try taking a thin piece of stainless steel wire and feed it through the tube. Then tape the new electric wire to the SS wire. Lowe's sells thin stainless steel wire on a spool. When you are done, you can use the SS wire to secure your turnbuckles so you are not wasting the SS wire.
I have been trying that. I didn’t know if there was some obstruction in the tubing that needed to be worked around.
I have tied on to the existing wire and used wire ease on the cable. I have only got it to feed about a foot and the it stops.
I have tied on to the existing wire and used wire ease on the cable. I have only got it to feed about a foot and the it stops.
I did this two weeks ago. One person pushing one pulling. wire lube might be helpful but I left it at home (don’t use soap). It got stuck at the deck, too far to reach with needle nose. Tried to pull out but would get stuck half way back. Had you use drill and router to enlarge the hole at the deck. A royal pain in my sons back.
Next time I’d hook wires to string and pull twice.
Very nice bright USCG approved MarineBeam combo nav light.
Next time I’d hook wires to string and pull twice.
Very nice bright USCG approved MarineBeam combo nav light.
I've ran wiring in other tubing and have found leftover metal from welding inside. Wire lube is an excellent idea. I whole heartily support using the existing wiring to pull the new wiring through. Lay about 4" of the new and old wire side by side and tape them together in a style similar to what is shown below. You dont want much, if any, overlap with the tape. That will make it thicker and harder to pull through. If that fails dont be afraid to get creative. Ive used anything from solid copper wire to pallet straps to fish wire through. The steel wire that @rgranger suggested sounds like an excellent idea. For larger commercial wiring applications I've been told that they attach a line to something soft thats similar in size to the conduit and then blast some air into it. The "head" piece gets shot down the conduit and pulls line along with it.
Can you take a pic of the bow pulpit?
Can you take a pic of the bow pulpit?
Last edited:
If your old wire is still in the conduit, you might want to use it to pull some light nylon string through ... or even dental floss (dacron BTW). then tie the line to the new electric wire and use the light line to pull the new wire through.
We nearly fed low voltage wire through a box because we couldnt get around it. We had spent two hours and on the last try we finally got it. As with most difficult to pull wiring projects, it'll seem impossible but with the right strategy and a bit of luck you will get it eventually.
You might stagger the new wire's ends to tape them so you don't have as large a bulge in the splice?
Having them in line (end to end) is more likely to fail than putting them next to each other for a few inches (parallel)
I’ve used shop vac’s and kite string tied to a paper napkin corner. Works great in conduit.
+1 This can work well. Be sure to secure the end of the string not in the hole.
Ken
I realize there is already a wire in the tube. Some time ago someone offered the idea to put a non-magnetic nut on a piece of string. Feed it into the hole, then move the magnet on the outside of the pipe to "carry" the nut to the needed spot.
Over the years I found residue from welding and caulking making it difficult to pull new wires. The fact of the tube not knowing what was in it, I use to pull the old wiring out first attached to a tracer line like a steel cable so it would not break. I would then tape one end of the wire to the steel cable very tightly and then double the wire back taping it down tightly over the cable side by side with the other ending the taping for lack of words in a cone shape on the cable to help guide it thru.
you need to use tape sparingly as it creates a large lump/friction point. Smaller pieces spread out over a larger length allows the wires to flex around corners much easier.
If you can't pull through using the old wire, it's possible there's a gap in the conduit for a junction. You might need to open more hull liner and/or furniture to find it. An inspection scope can be helpful.. I have one of these, and it works well https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WRNGYXY/
If you can move it a foot there is hope. My guess is that the original installer taped the two wires together. This should never be done when pulling wire in a conduit because they can bunch up if one wire is longer in the pipe. Try pulling each of the old wires separately until all slack is removed, then pull both together. Wire lube (Home Depot) is helpful but it may not reach your tight point at first. You could blow, squirt or vacuum the wire lube into the pipe. Be very careful not to break the old wires by tugging too hard. As stated above it is best to pull in a string first, then the new wires.