I was vacationing in the far North of BC and in Prince Rupert, the brakes again seized up on me. I was able to release fairly easily, but still... (Pouring rain the day I got there; nothing the next day.)
So I popped the drums off, and the one on the driver's side had a lot of brake detrius in the drum. I used an airgun and cleaned off the drums and linkage. The mechanic told me he'd not seen any brakes in such good shape that old - I reminded him I have a manual transmission so I use the engine a lot for slowing the Ranger.
There was a bit more rust on the driver's side drum than the other, but I think this is logical - more water from oncoming traffic splashed into that drum. We also tested the emergency brake with the drum off - GENTLY pressing the emergency brake pedal with the palm caused the brakes to expand; pulling the release caused the brakes to retract to the original position.
Since then, no problems. We'll see next spring. I may also have to learn to wean myself off the emergency brakes and trust the transmission in very wet conditions. This will be a problem - the habits of 40 years are hard to break - in particular when they pertain to a safety device.
That is it for now.
H.