2wd
I've read somewhere in the Forum where the rear brakes have locked up going forward, but nothing on locking up in reverse. The rotors drag enough to "smoke" the E-brake going forward around the block, but there is no tension on the cable.
I removed the rear brake calipers & attempted to remove the rotors with no luck. It appears the Internal E-brake is locking up the rotors. I couldn't get the cable off the E-brake arm on the back side & the rotors would not budge.

Funny thing is, If it is the E-brake, It hasn't been used until after I reved the wheels to inspect.

Can anyone help ???

Rear Brakes on this truck are "Disc" not "Drum" They do not have a turnbuckle like drum brakes

 

Others have had the lining material seperate from the shoe. It then gets jammed and causes the problem. That is probably what happened with yours.

 

I had mine lock up also last week after doing a brake job. I was in a parking lot and luckily had a screw driver with me so I could release it. Crawl under the truck and take the little rubber oval grommet out of the back plate. Use a flat screw driver and rotate the gear down. Get a few good turns out of it. This will retract the E-Brake shoes. It will also help for removing the rotor.

 

Take a flat screw driver, thick if you can or something like it to beat on with a hammer. Most likely the part that the cable connects to is locked too and must be pounded back. Back the adjuster off too as mentioned before ^. I bet you have to replace the shoes and maybe the hardware, springs, pins, clips etc. The key here is to free up the siezed swiveling part that the cable connects too. Put it in a vise and seperate the 2. Then wire wheel or whatever the rust out, antisieze liberally and re-install. Anti-sieze has to be applied to points of contact as shown in a Haynes manual. The hardest part will be removal.

 

I must be missing something. There is no adjuster slot on this "Disc" Rotor Back.
The only thing that is on the back of the Rotor is the E-Brake Lever sticking out of the back.

I've smacked this lever a few times with a punch/hammer in both directions, but it's not budging & won't take musch abuse. Is this the piece you are suggesting I take my anger out on?

 

Mine is also a 2000 2wd. The slot is in the middle towards the bottom. There should be a rubber piece plugging the hole up that you have to pop out. My lever is stuck just like yours. I was able to retract the brake this way until I have time to work on it. I will get a picture for you.

 

Hoseguy,
Go to my gallery and go under the brake gallery. I put a picture there. I circled it in red.
https://www.f150online.com/galleries...219&anum=14534

 

Although I didn't get the pic till after the fact. I managed to get the darn things off.
A clip that retains the shoe had broken & caused a piece of the brake material to break off & wedge between the other part of the brake shoe inside the rotor. There is an adjuster at the bottom, but both were frozen stiff & there would be no way of adjusting them in as bad as they were.

I borrowed an air hammer from a customer of mine & used it between each stud until the rotor broke loose from the axle. I then had to smack & pry from behind with a BFH until it cleared the axle. (This Snap-On Air Hammer is quite the tool, a must have for this job)

I removed the complete E-Brake assy on each side & found that this set-up is another poor design from Ford. The drum style brake rusts & seizes if it is not used constantly & the way it's designed will always have some drag on the rotor. I'm sure with the resistance that I've had for who knows how long should increase my fuel efficiency. The wheels free spin now like the front wheels. I noticed better roll-out & acceleration immediately.

During reassembly, I never-seized the heck out of all parts to avoid a problem in the future...

ps. The cable and bracket on the back are untouched..the lever slips out easily from the inside once the shoes are removed. The E-Brake pedal still works because the spring return is on the cable itself & not the mechanism.

Thanks again for all the help & hope this helps anyone else out who is experiencing similar problems.. .

 

I'm hoping that the swivelling part that actually pushes the shoes out was fully cleaned and as you put it, never-seized, where the female plate sits on the male plate. This piece was a pain in my *** for a long time, now it's good.

 

I Removed the entire E-Brake Shoe assy from each rear wheel. The return spring for the cable & pedal is on the end of the cable which was untouched. I'm not any different than most people with an Auto-Transmission & don't use the E-brake, so it will never be missed.

When I reassembled I wire brushed & Never-seized all contact surfaces for the rotor & also the Caliper contact points & slides.
I've noticed a big difference in performance & coasting.
It's amazing how much the E-Brake was taking away. The poor design allows the E-brake to always have a very light touch on the rotors.

 

I don't know if I'd say poor design, but it does seem alot of water gets in there on average. I have found that using them too much is maybe no good too. Every so often, I will check by hand to see if the brakes have fully released after using them and to my surprise, they've been good (cross my fingers).

 

You can certainly tell an overpaid engineer was involved in this plan. It's an Cluster #$*@Ford cheaped out & used the standard drum brake set-up not thinking about the long term effect. (very little use & water/rust)
Most of the the other MFG's have always used a much simpler and more effective system that uses the existing caliper to apply an E-brake.

 

Do you guys think that this E-brake problem could cause a loud clunk while backing up? I thought I backed over something twice now because of a loud clunk but everything seems fine. I now notice that my E-brake has to be pushed to the floor and I've never used it that much.

 

If memory serves me correctly, there was a clunk when I backed up a few times several weeks ago.
It sounds like the adjuster may have fallen out on yours & may be hanging up on something. I would get an air-hammer out & pull the rotor to inspect before you get stranded on the side of the road.
Hind-Site is always 20/20

 

Thanks Hose, Will do! I need to replace the rear pads anyway.