Electric Service Remount

As talked about before, the bracket for my electric drop appeared to have ripped out at some point and reattached - but not to a stud. Tearing off the layers of siding revealed just how poorly attached it was. I removed the siding except what was under the bracket and then started hanging the new siding. Once I was sided up to the next nearest stud towards the front of the house, I was able to make the switch to a new bracket.

old bracket

I pre-drilled and threaded in the new reinforced ceramic bracket. Next I hooked on a new tension clip to the bracket. Then laying the bracket on the guide cable (also the neutral wire for the service drop) I slid in the tapered mating piece. As tension is applied to the bracket, the pulls the taper closer making a tighter grip to the cable. It's a simple and really reliable design. Once the new mounting was complete I was able to remove the old bracket and the siding underneath it. Fair warning though, extreme caution needs to be taken when working around a service. One bad move can leave you a toasty critter and there is no breaker out on the street lines to blow if you do short something out! Usually the wire, the tool, or you will become the failing point to break the circuit if something bad happens.

I still need to put a service weather head on the cable. Right now it just has a "gooseneck" head, where they just bend the cable over to keep water from getting in the cable where the sheathing is cut to expose the individual leads. A weather head has a mounting screw and keeps the top of your cable more secure.