Mast Coduit
Jon,
When I landed LAYLAH home from Philly 4 years ago there was no conduit at all in the mast, just the wiring harness flopping around loose. PO had apparently intended to drop the mast for a number of years to repair the non-operating steaming light and anchor light.
I purchased suffecient length of plastic conduit, built an entirely new mast wiring harness and rigged pull lines at both the steaming light elevation and top of mast. Used an electrical fish tape to get all the pull lines in place.
Was quite a challenge since I was feeding from all directions. The Wind Machine multi-core was still fine so it had to feed into the new conduit from the top as the conduit was pushed into the mast. The steaming light wiring was exiting the conduit at mid height and the other witing for new spreader lights plus anchor light were feeding in from the base.
Working by myself it all went together.
To secure the conduit I came up with a modified solution. Since pairs of holes were necessary anyway for the securing method mentioned earlier and I was aware of that method!
I experimented a bit with a piece of sheet aluminum to to get the drilled holes sized and spaced correctly. My strategy, instead of trying to drill into the conduit with wiring already threaded thru was to use electrical tyewraps around the outside of the conduit.
Laid the mast so gravity was working with me with the leading face down and the conduit obviously laying in generally the right place I drilled pairs of holes. Took the tyewrap and bent it into a "U" shape and then fed it in one hole and fiddled around until I got the other end to feed out the second hole. Trial and error there until I got the "U" bend figuired out. Installed one pop rivet, pulled the tyewrap tight and installed the second pop rivet.
Where you've got existing wiring to worry about damaging trying to drill a new pop rivit hole this method might be made to work for you.
If you're pulling any new wires say to the spreaders, get them pulled and secure them taught beside the conduit before you start installing the tyewraps as I suggest. You should be able to capture the new wires along with the conduit and secure them as well.
I think I went about every 3' with the straps and it's working fine in seasonal use since.