[denisond3]

Again, your brakes may be different, but on the 2nd gen Escorts with drums, the self adjuster is inside the drum, not accessible from outside AT ALL. The way you adjust the brakes is by driving forward (or backward) and hitting the brakes. Its a neat system, but sort of a nuisance when you want to remove the drum; since you cant 'back-off' the adjuster in any way. The same item that has the self adjuster 'ratchet' on it also pushes the shoes apart when the handbrake is applied. Ford calls it the 'parking brake actuating lever'. It has a lever that extends through the brake backing plate to where the handbrake cable pulls on it, to pivot it when you pull up on the handbrake lever in the car. Unfortunately the pivot rusts up, (mostly on cars with automatics, where the handbrake may not be used for years at a time). Once it has rusted up, pulling on the lever will either not do anything, or it will force the pivot to turn a little, but not it wont release when you drop the handbrake handle to drive away. That results in the brake shoes wearing faster.
With the 2nd gen. brakes. there are two phillips head screws on the flat surface of the brake drum. These were needed during assembly of the car, but arent needed once the wheel is bolted on. Once the two screws are unscrewed (with a hand impact device for instance), the drum is only held on by the close fit of the hub and the drum. A tight close fit.
Commonly you have to force the drum loose from the hub (or unbolt the hub to get the drum/hub off). I find that hitting the drum with a hammer on the outer side of the flat surface will 'tip' the drum out at the other side a little. This means swinging the hammer 'in' toward the center of the car, at the very outer edge of the drum's front face, ...not its curved sides. Then you can walk it back and forth until its willing to be worked off of the shoes.
The 'parking brake actuating lever' can be removed -after you take the brake shoes off-, and with penetrating oil, a bench vise, and a pair of vise grip pliers, you can free up the pivot action. It does take some wiggling to get the 'parking brake actuating lever' out of the brake backing plate, but its do-able. There is a left and a right version of the actuator, and the last time I asked at a Ford dealership, the thing was $53 each.
There isnt any 'screw' type self-adjuster on the 2nd gen Escorts, but how the 3rd gen cars' rear brakes are adjusted, I dont know.
Good Luck.