The backing plate and e-brake cable can stay together as a unit when you pull the halfshaft. Once you have the four bolt holding the backing plate to the axle removed, the halfshaft slides out. I used a makeshift slide hammer to achieve removal. There are two paper gaskets to replace when you do this operation, also, as you will observe upon diasassembly.

1987 Raider - Roxy
1988 Mighty Max 2.6L Turbo - Pearl
1997 Mountaineer V8 - Freddy
2000 Excursion V10 - Freya