Taurus 99 will start and shift through all gear but won't move..

[jpeeks109]

My Taurus 99 will start up. I can switch through all the gears like P N..etc. But when I have it in drive or reverse and press the accelerater it won't move. It's seems like the back brakes are locked up. I recently did my front brakes but not the back. I also didn't take out 1/2 the fluid and then replace some after the brake job like it says in the chilton's manual. MY brakes were working fine for 2 weeks with average driving. I also did a vacuum pressure test and it passed. I was also thinking the parking brake is stuck. I went under to look at the hole where you adjust the rear brakes and there wasn't the rubber plug. We just had alot of rain yesterday when I got home and put the parking brake on do you think maybe water could have gotten in there and locked it in place? It's in the driveway and I can't put it on jacks to take a look. Please someone help

Thank You

[TaurusKing]

Take your car jack and crank up a side to see if the wheel will move, if it doesn't, grab the parking brake cable by the driver's side rear wheel and give it a good shaking, sometimes the cables will bind up and won't release,,, I'm not sure, your cable may be 3 or 4 piece... the little rubber plugs are nice to have there, but I wouldn't worry that they caused anything, I believe I may be the only person on the planet who actually replaced the plugs after removing them.. you may have to manually retract the shoes thru the access holes

[mechhound]

It sounds like your rear brakes may be locked as you suspect from your parking brake. You will need to somehow jack up the back tires, one at a time would be fine, and see if they turn free. I wouldn't try gunning the engine to try to get it to move or you may damage the transmission. When you put the transmission in drive or reverse, can you feel that little jerk so you know it is engaging in gear? Good luck.

[jpeeks109]

well I had to be safe about this, my driveway is at an angle but it was really close to the garage so I just slowly forced it in there (dragging the back wheels). I jacked it up and the driver wheel after the parking brake was disengaged spinned and the passenger side didn't. I wanted to just change the back brakes but I'm not to good at that. I'll probably just get it done. I can't seem to get the drum off and the adjuster screw is a pain. I then hit the drum with a hammer and it started to spin again. I got a rubber piece (easy thing to do but alot of people don't) to stop water from leaking in. My back breaks are shot though. I guess I won't be using my parking brake anytime soon. I wonder how hard it is to convert to disc?

Well I thank all of you for giving me advice and hope you have a good new year

Justin

[TaurusKing]

Don't even think about attempting disc conversion... the adjuster screws are easy provided you use a good tool and make sure the spring is pushed back from the adjuster... you can also chop off the shoe holding pins on the back of the drum and pull the entire mess away from the backing plate,, give you good reason to replace all the hardware with new and shiny... drum brakes are fine.. get yourself a manual, Chilton's or whatever,to help you... parking brake cables are 3 piece, I'm guessing around 70 bucks or so for the pieces, it's something you can do... I haven't looked at my 99 cable setup last time I did the pads, but I'm thinking Ford probably still uses those pain-in-the-a@@ spring clamps, I used a little hose clamp to compress the ears, then you can slide it back thru the hole, or I'm thinking a 9\16 socket may also work,, hose clamp worked well though..