Lude Generation

1. O/S inner front track rod end ball joint has excessive play.
2. N/S outer CV joint has a hole in it.
3. N/S rear upper anti-roll bar linkage rubber bush deteriorated.
4. O/S rear upper anti-roll bar linkage rubber bush deteriorated.
5. O/S rear parking brake recording little of no effort.

...plus side, emmissions were fine.

This whole thing about 'deteriorated' rubber bushes is bollocks

To be fair, there is a little bit of play in the bushes, but not very much - not failure worthy anyway. But still, the worst of my issues is the lack of handbrake on one side..

not too bad, except the brakes

Yeah, a bit of perished 19yr old rubber is ok. Dunno what to do about the brakes though, hopefully I can fix it without replacing the caliper.

The only way to know is to get fired in there and have a look.

ive got a set of good oem front roll bar bushes if you need or some es poly ones if you want to upgrade them.
should also have the rear drop link bushes but will have to go and check where they are.
handbrake is always a pain sounds like the cable isnt working but like Merlin says you will have to get in there and check it out.

soz double post - system or site running slow today?

I will have to look for a 'handbrake overhaul' description or something.

Front roll bar bushes are ok thanks mate, the back ones are rattling and need replacing. I may have some on my donor lude (if I can get them off), I'm hoping there's a decent track rod end on it too..! I'll have to check tonight/tomorrow - car has to be SORN now though as tax ran out at end of July and it's not going to be retested and taxed before August 14th

Is handbrake adjustment/troubleshooting fairly straight forward?

One side inner track rod end is a complete bitch, one's easy peasy, I forget which is which for sure but I think it's the drivers side that's the complete arse . It's difficult because access is really restricted, so the lock washer is a complete and utter pita to fold over and the rubber boot is nigh on impossible to get back over the end of the rack. Muchos swearing and skin scraped off hands...

I wouldn't go using a second hand one of those if I were you, they don't cost that much tbh. Also (again from memory, I've done 2 so you'd think I'd know but seem to have trouble remembering! ) you'll need to buy a new tab washer - can't remember if that comes with the kit or you have to buy seperately. I think I still have a kit in the shed for the other side that I haven't got round to doing yet. I'll try and have a check tonight to see if it comes with the lock washer or not.



EDIT:
Handbrake problems are normally variations/combinations of these;

• - Pads partially seized in the pad carriers due to corrosion (take caliper off, pads out, anti-squeal shims out, good clean up/rub down the pad carrier surfaces with wire brush/emery paper/metal file, grease up with copper-ease/silicone grease, clean the shims and pads, re-grease, re-assemble and away you go)
  - Seized caliper slider pins (take caliper off, yank pins out, clean up, re-grease and re-install with new rubber boots)
  - Possibly badly adjusted handbrake (easy peasy job described in the service manual) though this is unlikely if it's one side only that's not good.
  - Pivot where the cable attaches to the caliper arm seized. That's just a case of copious amounts of WD40 and working the C-clamp on the end of the cable back-forth until it frees up.

There's a how to already on the site covering the slider pins and I'll be posting up pics about slider pins and handbrake cable pivots on my UKDM profile tonight (hopefully). Or perhaps not because IE8 is being absolutely crap as usual...