Parking Brake

It's most likely just the cable. Most of it is easily accessable under the car. Crawl under and take a look. Should be easy to identify what's broken. If you don't see it under there, open your center console and pull the removable panel behind the e brake and see if the cable is still attached there.

That's kinda scary that the e-brake cable would have snapped already, although that does sound like what you're describing. If you felt it pop, then it could have either broken, or just popped out of its bracket. If you noticed it gradually, you could for some reason be wearing the rears quickly, and it just went slack from being out of adjustment, in which case you can adjust it under your arm rest.

How far do you usually pull up on the e-brake handle? Mine rarely makes it past ~30°. Maybe excessive force being used on the handle caused it to snap early. Our handle is quite long, causing a lot of torque unexpectedly, and can easily be over tightened. Even my 30° could be way more tension than needed to hold the car in place...

I haven't broken mine , but I am interested in swapping the cables out due to winter freeze ups. Has anyone found a replacement cable that fixes the water retention problem that the TSB describes? (that ford says doesn't apply to my car)

I drained a good bit of water out of the lines when I replaced my LCA bushings.
Not looking forward to <32

Last winter it froze up and the dealer told me to wait till it warms up LOL
and to not use the E-brake in the winter

Darkfire- thanks for the tip about the access hatch in the console

The cable may be broken inside of the tube and you wouldn't be able to see that. Check near the rear brake calipers where it comes out of the insulating tube.

-I don't know if it'll help but I found these:

http://www.2005stang.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10281/parking%20break.pdf

http://www.2005stang.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10281/parking%20break%20adjustment.pdf

http://www.2005stang.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10281/diagnosis%20and%20testing%20brakes.pdf