At the suggestion of everyone here, i went ahead with going all the way to the meter, rather that trying to hook on to the old steel line. Whole job took 6 hours with the help of a bobcat mini excavator. We dug along side the old line, to the side walk, then managed to get a couple of scoops on the other side of the side walk. Hand dug the rest of the way on the meter side. They had a copper pigtail on the meter, so we cut it at a good round spot, doubled the pipe over on the house side, put a big cable clamp on it and pulled it out from under the sidewalk with the bobcat. It left a nice big tunnel we were able to push the new 3/4 copper right through there and put a nice big brass compression union onto the existing pigtail. Other end through the new foundation and sealed up, with a nice new ball valve on the inside. Finished backfilling the foundation after that. One more thing off the list.....
steve barker