first thing to do is check the brake shoes. make sure they dont need replaced then check the cable to make sure they are in working order and if all that is good and someone just replaced the brakes shoes make sure they put the long side on the back side of the brakes
Disc brakes ( with small brake shoes in the back of the rotors for your parking / emergency brake )
My Explorer uses small parking brake shoes inside the back of the back rotor
A 1991 mercury topaz has drum brakes on the rear wheels.
Parking brakes apply generally on rear wheels to control enough sliding of the vehicle.
Disc brakes ( also have rear parking brake shoes )
It has rear disc brakes with the parking brake built into the caliper.
Is your parking brake on? this happened to me and wow the back tires were really smoking!! Check and see if this is the problem
how to adjust rear brakes on 1997 tracer merc.
If the parking brake does not engage fully, the rear (shoe type) brakes need to be adjusted or replaced.
Conventional drum brakes.
No , disk brakes front and rear ( the back disk brake rotors have small parking brake shoes inside of a drum portion )
No. Usually the parking brake is a separate mechanism from the driving brakes, and its usually only found on the rear wheels.