Currently the narrow conduit (1 inch outside, so inside maybe 3/4 inch) has 2 wires (hot and hot switched). I want to include one neutral so I can change to a light switch outlet combo. It is an old (1960) conduit, with a 90 degree elbow in the middle, so feels very "dry" and wires start getting damaged after a few attempts.
The wires were old so I bought black, white and red #12 THHN solid wires.
It was impossible to just add the extra wire (white) without fishing everything together. The wire would not even start moving properly (get stuck with the other 2 wires in the way).
However, my attempts to fish all three wires failed. Mostly due to this 90 degrees elbow - it would always get stuck there when pulling, and locking, not moving any further, I had to pull back. It seems that the conduit is too narrow to allow three wires to flow there coming from this elbow. At the start, is fine because I can adjust them, but inside the 90 degrees elbow it is hard to be able to make the right angle so the three wires go inside.
I once managed to finish two - the third wire ended up stuck there (it was very hard to bring the 2 wires past the elbow already). They arrived with their protective plastic with several scratches. It did not matter if taped all together or in different areas to allow better movement.
My questions: - It is definitely doable to fish 3 #12 THHNs inside this conduit, if it were straight. Just feeding it, it moves through the conduit. With this 90 degrees elbow, however, is it something you still consider fully doable? - Is it normal to be so hard to fish 3 solid #12 THHN when there are 90 degrees connections? - What would you suggest doing in this case? Stranded instead of solid wire? Lubricant? Different wire? Anything else that I did not use?
I question what a professional would do to finish the job - I've been trying to do it for 2 days already.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!