New Pads and Rotors - Still Squeaking

[Fummins]

I lied, the actual cable moves but the spring on the end of the cable(drum side) is so rusty that it lost a lot of it's springiness so doesn't release fully. The work cars have the cables seize because they coating on the cable gets beaten off by gravel then it wears down to the cable, letting in water and rusting then sticking.
I haven't had to free too many siezed cables, if I did they were just temporary fixes. Soaking one in diesel might be worth a shot.

[Wallythacker]

ya, I considered soaking in tranny fluid also. Supposed to work well. I'll give diesel a shot too. I don't feel like dropping $140 on two cables for a riding mower worth $300. makes no sense.

[Fummins]

Maybe some heat, toss a dog dish or cattle water heater element in there too? Swearing and/or throwing beer cans at stuff sometimes makes it work better too.

[R01k]

700 miles later and the squeak returned. WTF!?

This time I noticed a couple of suspicious signs: Braking didn't feel as firm on the back and the parking break pulled the passenger side when engaged while coasting.

Removed the rear wheels and tugged the shoes with my hands. They didn't seem stuck and moved fine. Anyways, polished to shiny metal some rust that was on the shoes contact points on the backing plate and greased. Put all back on and went for a drive.

Perfect braking and no screeching regardless of how hard I tried. Parking brake feels even when stopping.

My theory is that somehow the rear brakes lost effectiveness due to the rusty areas not letting the shoes slide properly. The front brakes tried to compensate and overheated, which made then squeal. Let's see if the problem returns...