My son's 95 850 had the mergency brake engage without him pulling up the e-brake handle. Has been freezing of late in the cold. How hard is it to pull the drum for that brake. Is a spring holding the shoes away from the drum and that's what broke?

I have no 850 experience with the emergency brake.

However on my 740, the cables are in the open where they goe into the backing plates. My 850s are out of town right now, or I'd go out and look!

If your cables are open, you should be able to crawl under both sides of the car and pull on the cable. It should pull out of the backing plate fairly easilly, and you should be able to feel the spring pull it back. The action should be nice and free.

If it does not work freely your problem is in the wheel.

If it does work freely, the problem is toward the front. If the problem is toward the front. you can usually pull hard on the rear cables to get some slack in the system. If you do, do not apply the brake again umtil you fix it. When my daughter's cable broke a few weeks ago, I put a towel over the handle so that she would not try to apply it out of habit.

If pulling on the rear cables does not work, pull every cable in any direction that you can, you might free it up. Pulling sideways increases leverage over trying to pull it straight.

Good luck
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2 8s & 2 7s 600,000 miles total