2002 Rear Brake Issues

[Thub]

I knew the rear brakes on this truck were iffy the day I bought it, all rust pitted and nasty but they still stopped the truck well. Shortly after I heard the common ebrake shoe bouncing around inside the drum at low speed, then when setting the ebrake the dash light no longer comes on.
Yesterday I set the ebrake when I was on a steep driveway, they seemed to hold ok, when I went to pull off I released the brakes and let off the brake pedal, a loud bang followed.

Now during regular braking I get a small squeak for the first 3-5 seconds of braking every time at any speed.

My question is how hard is it to service these disc/drum brakes, I have read they are pretty challenging. I know everything has to be redone on mine including the calipers, and all the ebrake stuff. The only other brakes I have ever done were the fronts on my 2002 taurus which i did with a friend, wasn't terrible. With my limited knowledge am I better of letting a shop mess with this job?

 

[Exproblems]

Now during regular braking I get a small squeak for the first 3-5 seconds of braking every time at any speed.

My question is how hard is it to service these disc/drum brakes, I have read they are pretty challenging. I know everything has to be redone on mine including the calipers, and all the ebrake stuff. The only other brakes I have ever done were the fronts on my 2002 taurus which i did with a friend, wasn't terrible. With my limited knowledge am I better of letting a shop mess with this job?

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Sounds like something broke off and is laying in the pad area when you released the Parking brake. The rear "disc" brakes are easy to change, but the "parking brake shoes" are the real PITA. You may run into a problem with pulling off the rear rotors as well, they could be hung up on the inner rotor lip that has formed over time from the parking brakes rubbing against the inner rotor surface. You might have to pry or force them off, I did on one of mine but I got it off. You will probably find a lot of rust in the parking brake area and the inner rotor braking surface for the parking brake will probably be rusted out as well. You will need new rotors in that case. I have replaced drum brake shoes in the past on older vehicles I once owned, but it has been over 20 years since I did them. I know on these EX's, there is no "star wheel adjustment hole" for the parking brake already pre-tapped by the factory. They built them with a tap/punch-out metal plug. You would have to drill it out yourself so you can adjust the new parking brakes after installing them and buy some rubber grommets to plug up the hole when done. Adjusting the parking brakes can be a real PITA as well.
This is my recommendation for you. If you can handle replacing the rear brake pads and rotors yourself, then do that first and save some money on the parts and labor costs for that part of the rear brake job. I would then take it to your mechanic or brake shop and have them replace the parking brakes and tell them you want the star wheel adjustment holes tapped out by them as well, so the parking brakes can be adjusted in the future if needed. Tapping out the holes should only take a minute or two to do. This is what I am going to do with my vehicle when my parking brakes need replacing. I like saving myself some money, but some things just aren't worth the headache. Not sure what they charge for parking brake replacements. I've seen the parking brake shoes sell for around $56 in Advance Auto Parts, but you can get $20 off an order over $50 using an online coupon from Coupon Cabin.com