I have two lights in the pool. One is working, the other is not. Bulbs are good on both.

I've isolated which conduit run belongs to the bad light fixture and when I was trying to pull the wire (into the pool away from the house) I realized it was jammed pretty good.

The pool was built in '89. The conduit is galv steel and an inch or less diameter. I'm thinking it may be compromised underground or so caked up inside the wire is almost fused to the conduit. Short of excavating the whole conduit and under the pool skirt (concrete) I'm not sure if there are any other junction boxes I'm battling with. I assume it's a straight-ish run from the light to the junction box on the house.

I haven't tried to run compressed air through the conduit to see if the pool bubbles yet..I'm hoping that would tell me if the conduit is in-tact.

Worst case...what's it going to cost me to have someone re-run this conduit from the house to the niche in the pool?

Any ideas to free the stuck wires? I've tried lubricant, hot water, tension etc.

You are going to have to dig up some of the conduit or run a new conduit

It has rusted through most likely

Dig down from the bed til the conduit makes a bend
Cut it and then pull it out
Also tie a pull string in when you do pull it

I hesitate to even follow up on this post but confession is good for the soul!

One of my last ditch efforts was to just start excavating above the light at the back of the pool skirt. I dug down about 18 inches and decided I wasn't going to find the mystery junction box I so hoped for as I had fished the line from both directions and seemed to have gotten stuck in the same spot.

Basically at that point, I had settled on running new conduit.

As I am scooping handfuls of dirt back into the hole. I see the back and underside of the "diving rock" at an angle I hadn't seen yet. Low and behold, a second switch for the "broken" light. It was unique feeling of joy and shame in the same moment. Luckily, the previous homeowner hadn't found that switch either so there's someone else out there equally as oblivious to their environment as me and I'm not alone.

In any case, for your time, here is evidence of the benefit of LED lights over incandescent.