OK. When I get home tomorrow, I'm going to try a couple of things. First, I'm going to use my air compressor to attempt to blow out each line.... hopefully I would see air bubbles coming from the niche which would give me hope that the line is not broken or crushed under concrete. I'll also get down in the water and check the conduit opening at the back of the niche to check for any gunk, sealer, plug, etc., that might be causing the cord to be caught up. It's a wet niche, so there shouldn't be anything there, but maybe? I also try:

1. Go through the process with the SPA light. Hopefully this will go smoothly and may reassure me that at least the proper conduit was used on the Pool light side.

2. I will try pulling the green niche ground wire as I have learned that this may often the cause of the pool cable being stuck.

3. I borrowed a 125' fish tape which I will attempt to put through the pool light conduit to see if it is possible.

4. If things remain stuck... use a bottle or two of laundry detergent to run down the conduit 12 to 24 hours. I have read that this will often find a way to lubricate the cable enough to loosen things up. Question here though, for anyone who may have attempted this trick, did you flush out the conduit with water to rinse the detergent out of the conduit?

Any input would be appreciated, and I'll update in the event I find something that works so that it might help others in the future.

Mike

Update! Success! I installed my spa light without incident and the length of the spa cable turned out to actually be longer than the pool cable. Initially, I had difficult pulling the spa cable, but followed the advice to remove the grounding cable first. I tied a string to the grounding wire and pulled easily. Once I accomplished that, the spa light cable came out easily. I then used a fish tape which easily moved through 1" conduit and attached the new cable. It wasn't easy, but it worked. I used the same string to very easily pull the grounding wire back through the conduit! One light down! The length of pull for the spa light was just over 50'.

I used my longer fish tape to see if I could get down the pool light conduit and at a point, probably the last 10 feet or so met some resistance. I kept moving the fish up down and around and finally was able to push it through the niche into the pool. O.K., if I can push a fish tape through, I should be able to pull the old pool cable out. Right? I removed the fish tape and got to work. Well, taking my experience from the spa, I attached a pull string and removed the ground wire easily. Again, it was super easy to remove. More hope. I attached another pull string to the cable, just in case, and got in the pool and started pulling. I was able to get it moving and then it got stuck and I thought "Shoot." But then I looked over towards my pool equipment and noticed my pull string had snagged on my rock wall, so I got out, freed the string and got back to work. The cable seemed to hang up a couple of times, but heres another tip. I used a pair of large pliers and wrapped the cord around a couple of times and that easily gave me the leverage needed to get the cord through the tough spots. 6 hours later, I have a new spa light and pool light installed! Oh, and the length of pull was under 50' for the pool cable.

Don't know if it made a difference, but each time I pulled the ground wire out into the pool, I shot some water soluble, PVC compatible wire lubrication with the hope that as I was pulling from the wet side, the string would grab some of the lubrication and bring it down towards me.

Ok, my next problem. After wiring the JBOX, the spa light works and pool light does not. I went into iAqualink 2.0 and set up the remaining auxiliary switches to be pool lights, and still no success. So this morning I switched the wiring of the spa and pool lights and now the pool light works, but not the spa light, so I have determined that both lights do work! That's the good news. So now what?

The Jbox consists of three conduits. One from the panel, containing 1 white, 1 green, and two red wires. The two other conduits are both the pool and spa light, which contain the large green ground and the pool cable. Each pool cable has one black, one white and one green.

So I'm guessing that one of the hot wires is bad somewhere in between the panel, or where it goes into the GFCI? Any suggestions would be appreciated on this new annoying issue. Could it be in the panel itself at one of the Jandy Auxiliary Switches?

This latest issue may warrant a call to my pool guy.....

OK, after more research, more solutions! Although my old pool light was assigned to "Auxiliary 3," it seemed to be having an issue. As I said, above, I have confirmed that both lights work. Ultimately, I assigned both the pool and spa lights to JVA plugs and now both pool and spa lights work! However, one of the actuating valves no longer works as it is no longer assigned. For now, I will take the small victory and plan to figure out why the pool light was not functioning on the other relay? If I have time, I will plan to move the red wires to an open wire relay and see if the problem can be isolated to that specific power relay. Again, any input is appreciated.

Last post on this issue. Using the Jandy interface on iAqualink is generally straightforward. After some time, I realized I had "double programmed" a couple of the auxiliary connections which was causing confusion between settings. It would simple default to the first item programmed to that auxiliary, even though I thought it was supposed to control the other.

Once I realized what was going on, I wrote down assignments for each JVA and auxiliary, I was able to ensure that each was programmed with a single item. The iAqualink won't let you name JVA's which is a shame, but it does allow you to name the Auxiliary's. I have now successfully installed a new Jandy control board, and a new Pool & Spa Light. More importantly, they are all programmed and working correctly!

Overall, I am very pleased with the new control and Jandy LED lights. They are much brighter than the previous Jandy "Color" lights I had previously. The basic colors are the same, just brighter, and light shows are pretty cool.

Feel free to contact me with any questions, inputs or comments.

Thanks,

Mike

Thanks for your post.

Going to be doing this also.

Is your Jandy still operational after 3 years?

Mine did not last that long.

So this time, standard fixture with LED bulb.

I had the same issue, you have to keep tugging short hard snaps. What happens is when the installers, install lights in the conduit, they pull the line through and then glue the joints together...wallaaa, the pvc glue holds the wire in place.

I have an 80 foot metal 1/2" conduit run from the junction box to the pool light. When pulling on it at the light end, the cord broke, which was very surprising. This left me with about 4 " of cord on the light end and 2-3" at the junction box end. I purchased a quart of Cable Free through Walmart and slowly poured it into the conduit from the junction box end and let it sit overnight. This morning, I grabbed the 2-3" end with my channel locks and pried a half inch of cord out. I reset and got another half inch. The rest of it hand pulled and came out very easily. It totally breaks down the 'side-friction' from the cable laying against the conduit for 20 years. Cable Free also serves as a lubricant for pulling the new cable. It was pricey but well worth it!!

I had the same problem with the spa light. I poured about a cup of olive oil in the conduit followed by really hot water, a couple of sharp tugs and it popped loose. I think the key is making sure the conduit is "wet".

I changed my light today. Had the same issue with the wire not wanting to pull through. I was contemplating pulling the ground wire out, but I read some online chats and I made sure the conduit was wet followed by about a cup of Dawn dishwashing soap. I sprayed more water into the conduit and then let the soap work for about 15 minutes. One tug and I almost fell down because it came out so easily. 15 minutes later the new line was pulled through. Great tip on the dishwashing soap.

Thank you for this post I wish I had found it earlier I'm in the same issue