How to replace wire next to another wire?

Question

Currently I have, courtesy of the last owner, 3 wires running to the "socket" behind my TV. It's a coax and 2 audio cables (image below), and they go to the fuse box/meter box in the hallway. . I'm not sure how they run, but at least: in the wall they go up, through the ceiling (probably some turns there), and then back down into said box. The yellow PVC tube they run trough is about 1.5cm in diameter (also see below).

Now I don't need an audio cable there at the moment, but I DO need network. I have a "wire pulling spring" (not sure that's the correct term). I figured my options are:

1. Attach the spring to one or all wires, pull everything out, pull everything I need back with the spring
2. Attach new wire to audio wires and pull the audio out and the network in with one action
3. Attach the spring to the audio wire, pull the spring in and the audio out in one go, then pull the network in with the wire pulling spring.

Option 2 and 3 mean that if I do get stuck, I won't be in a worse situation: the coax is still there. On the other hand, I imagine failure is easier if you don't pull out all the wires.

My question is of course: is there a dead-give-away best method, or are there options/considerations I didn't account for that might provide a 4th way or at least pick a certain winner of these three?

(As an added bonus I wouldn't mind some help or links to the best way to attach springs/wires to other wires for these purposes, but that's kinda a seperate thing.)

Answer 1

I would approach it first by trying to pull the network cable through with one of the audio wires. Strip the covering from about 6 inches/10cm of the network cable and separate the conductors in the audio cable about the same distance. Put the two cables end-to-end with the stripped parts overlapping and fold half of each cable back around the other and use electrical table to tape down flat to the original cable (folding the full cable may make your joint thicker and more likely to catch on the other wires in the conduit). Tape the remaining conductors down flat to the opposite cable (I adjust how I do this for the flattest seam with the specific cable being pulled). Now, see if you call pull that one cable through. If not, you may need to pull all three out, in which case I would pull a "pull string" rather than a fish tape -- electricians use a synthetic string that is lightweight but slippery -- and then pull the wires you do want back through.

If you have access to the attic, you should check to see if the conduit is continuous or if you will need to make one pull into the attic and a separate one back down.

Depending on the length of the run, you may also want to look into wire lube that eases the effort to pull them through the conduit.

Answer 2

I have checked @tomG 's answer as accepted, as that seems the best advice. I will tell what I actually did, and how it worked out.

1. I connected the network to the audio wire, and pulled it about halfway trough. Then the audio cable broke.
2. Instead of removing everything and switch a fish tape, I pulled (and pushed!) a pulling wire with the remaining audio cable, leaving the coax in place (needed holding down though :) )
3. Pulled the network with the wire.

And done. I should've probably removed all the cables, but this seemed to work and felt like less risk of damaging the coax. In the end I might have broken the second audio wire as well, and the coax doesn't connect as nice to the pulling wire, so that might have been an issue :)

Answer 3

There's a really simple solution for this since you have conduit.

1. Pull all of the existing wires out.
2. Get out your shop vac, and use it to apply suction to one end of the conduit.
3. Tie a small piece of paper (say, half the size of the conduit) to a piece of string, and feed it into the other end of the conduit.
4. Use this string as a pull string to pull back in the cables that you want.

The last time I did this, I pulled a string through 75' of conduit in about 15 seconds.

Answer 4

When I moved into my house a few years back I used one of the existing coax runs to pull cat5 behind my tv. I just stripped the insulation from both cables, twisted the copper together, and then taped them so they wouldn't snag. It pulled through fairly easily.

Answer 5

Best part of your situation: You have an unneeded/undesired cable in place and a new cable you want in that position.

As mentioned by Josh and Tom, your best and easiest solution is to attach the new cable to one end of the old speaker wire and pull it right through.

I would add that you should also attach a pull string with the new network cable so you can pull both on the same action unless space is extremely tight. Then you'll have your new cord plus a pull string that will serve you for any future changes (or if you just want to put that speaker wire back).

Be sure to tie a washer (nylon/plastic is best) that is larger than the conduit to both ends of the pull string to prevent pulling it out before you're good any ready. In my 10 years installing communication equipment (mostly in old or ancient Gov't buildings) nothing makes you happier than to open a panel or junction box and see a pull string dangling there. They'll save you (or the next guy) a ton of work in the future, or should I say, it could have saved you all this work