Ford Ranger Forum : “Is anyone having issues with their brakes? ”

There is something wrong, your drums have adjusters. Make sure you have the right parts, In a haynes manuel there is a pic of the rear brakes, if you are doing it yourself, compare and make changes. I would recommend that you go to another mechanic and get a second opinion, after all a second opinion never hurt. Remember your brakes are the only thing between you and the car in front of you. Best of luck, hope this helps.

Agreed, there should be a star wheel adjuster on the lower part of the drum that is activated by ratcheting whenever the parking brake is applied or the vehicle is braked in reverse.  

90% of all ranger have this problem, you can always upgrade to disc and never have the problem agian

there are adjusters, you have to pull the drum off to have full access to them...once you get the drum off they are on the bottom...you can also view them from the back of the drum there should be a small hole near the bottom, the adjuster is right inside there

there is a nut on the cylinder on my 1994 you adjust that and it expands or goes the other way

If you had to remove the metal bar so shoes fit inside drums your e-brake was not released far enough and the mechanic helping you should have noticed that , he should have known about the adjusters too. Time to change helper mechanic !!!

Are you sure the parking brake cable is not partly seized on ? it can happen , especially if you used it after it had not been used for a long time.

just replaced the rear brakes on my truck...a.) the adjuster was in such bad shape that the 3 peices were actually seized into one piece of corrosion....and 2.) both my parking brake cables were snapped...something to look into lol