1998 ford escort se hand brake need adjusting. doesn't hold.

Have you removed the hubs already?

You will need to clean bearings and hubs in Kero, dry and inspect for wear or damage.

Grease bearings with your hands by pushing grease into the large side of the bearing with your palm, grease needs to come out the other side of the bearing...

Repack hub, fit new seals, adjust preload, fit new locking devices(split pins).

Yes it will work.----
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Thanks.

behind the carpeted panel in the rear of the car on the drivers side or whereever your fuel door is

In 1998 4 wheel ABS was optional, Mechanic, or Dealership can verify.

If you have rear rotors that look like a rotor mounted on top of a drum brake, you will have an emergency brake inside the drum portion. The rear brake rotors are not flat like the front rotors for this style.

The E brakes have brake shoes and they have "Star" wheels for adjustment just like the regular drum brake. You really need to take off the rear rotors to inspect the inner drum portion. If you do adjust the E brakes without looking at the drum part, chances are the drum is pitted and rusty and you will be lucky to stop once before the E brake linings are ground off.

The other type of E brake works off the Rotor pads. You will see the brake cable attached to a lever on each wheel. There will be an Equalizing cable connecting both rear wheels with an adjustment point joining the main cable. Although the 3 clicks moves the main cable, to have both rear brakes equally tight you need the Equalizing properly adjusted.

Those are the things you need to look for.

have you adjusted the shoes prior to fitting the drums? I know that they are supposed to be self adjusting but if there is too much gap between the shoe and the drum, the auto adjust takes too long to catch up

There should be some sort of adjustment for the hand brake either in the drum or in the linkage/handle. I doubt the cable has stretched because if they start stretching they usually snap and since it does eventually hold that eliminates that as a possibility. How long ago did you take it to nationwide. Because this is something they should have checked for after repair was completed and adjustment made as a standard procedure. If it hasn't been that long take it back, calmly and politely tell them they forgot to adjust the linkage and chances are they will adjust without charge. In my opinion they had better not charge because this was a careless overlook by the mechanic and could have caused an accident or injury had the car been parked on a slope and started to roll. By the way did the handbrake work fine before brake repairs were made?

check to be sure emergency brake is not engaged ..and that cable is not frozen/rusted keeping it from releasing at baking plate into back of drum..often there is a knock out...(dimpled.stamped impression in backing plate) where the adjusting hole should be..you would need to slam that out (or in) with a heavy drift or screwdriver you are willing to hurt..then get to the star adjuster adn back it off
use lubricant around drum/backing plate area and at center (hub/drum) area where rust happens and pry with large screwdrivers 180 degrees apart between backing plate and drum wiggling and shifting positions around circumference...also a trick..open zerk fitting at that wheel cylinder and wiggle screwdrivers 'tween backing plate and drum to get shoes to close some....good luck

after a brake job pressing the brake pedal causes a meal on metal click seemingly from the forward of fire wall.
After driving for a few miles the sound will not duplicate until it cools down.