So new cable is in and balance problem now solved, thanks for the suggestion Scott I'm glad i didn't unbolt the exhaust and instead just took it off the hangers. It didn't look like it was going to give me much room to work but actually it made a massive difference and i had enough space to get both hands in comfortably and apply some proper force, with a little bit of silicone grease it was relatively easy to push the grommet in and there was a satisfying pop once it was home.
Strangely once fitted and everything reset the equaliser was now tilted slightly over to the passenger side, which was a bit worrying as i thought the problem had flipped to the other side, yet somehow when setting the resistance you could still feel a tad more bite on the driver side, not enough to cause an issue though. The balance is actually pretty close and there's less travel in the handbrake so I'm happy with where it is now
