I kinda know how to work on these things, but I am looking for a trick to save me some back pain.

I paid a guy with a trencher $20 to trench about 40 feet so I could add a head. He got next to a pipe and a valve wire and now my 4 zones on that side of the yard don't work. I saw the wire (just before I covered up the trench) and it looked fine. Most of it was still buried, but I gotta think he snagged or pulled it. The connections to the valves look ok, but still no juice.

Any tricks to finding where my power deadends?

Thanks.

Yes. If you've got a wire tracer you can find it. If not, dig up where you saw a wire and look for a cut. If it worked before that, and now it doesn't, best bet is he cut the common (white)wire and/or all valve wires. Pull the wire/s a little and see if it pulls towards you. If they do pull, dig where they pulled from.

That common wire connects to all valves. If the common is cut before those four valves, they will not work.

If you don't find a cut common or other wires, then check your splices. Just because the wire splices look good doesn't mean they are good. Cut and re-splice them so you know for sure.


Can you pay the guy another $20 to massage your back pain?

Thanks for the response. The wire is more like a cable with several strands inside it. Is it possible the common is run separately or as part of the strand?

Will start digging this afternoon. I am going to dig at the outbound side of the garage from the box to make sure I know what I am looking for. Then dig (re-dig) where I saw the wiring. Will post results when I'm done (and after a shower and some cold beer).

The wire is called multi-strand. The common could be separate, but probably not.

+1

Try looking in your valve boxes to see if the wires are still connected. If you think they pulled apart, you might get lucky and find it in the valve box.

It is probably going to be along the section that was dug up.

Sprinklerman, thank you for your help. I found the trick- dig and do a better job of inspecting the wire before covering it back up. I found 2 spots 12" apart where the trencher broke the wire. I bought a few feet and some caps and repaired it. My system works fine now and the new head is exactly what I needed. Now yard gets full coverage.

Now- on to replacing a dishwasher and cooktop, replacing the bellow in my washing machine, cleaning off my workbench, and cleaning my entire house. But I think I'll have a glass of wine first.

Did you get the grease caps to prevent corrosion to the wires.

Yep!

Attaboy!

Smart move. Will save a headache down the road.

Actually thought about putting grease caps on all the connections in the valve boxes. A project for another day.

Grease caps will save headaches down the road.