I have a 97 f150 that i bought 5 years ago. the breaks never seemed right since ive owned it. Today I put new pads on the front. I had to pound the old ones off with a hammer. The new ones had to be tapped on with a hammer. There is no play with the pads. even when the piston is released with a c clamp the wheel doesnt spin freely. other than the brakes i like the truck but if I can't figure out the brakes im getting rid of it. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

Where the pads fit and slide, is probably filled with rust under the stainless steel clips.
Take a file and clean the rust off the flat surfaces under the stainless steel clips down to the original metal then install the new clips and that will allow the pads to move freely. Make sure the calipers can move with clearance that gets filled with rust.
Secondly,, did you remove the caliper pins and clean out the bores so the caliper pins can move freely?
After that has been done Ford has special caliper lube you use or you can use synthetic grease to lube the pins on installation. Any other grease will attack the rubber boots that keep the pin inner surfaces from getting filled with junk.
If the rotors haven't been trued (cut) they get tapered through use and new pads cannot make full contact with the rotors and this causes the pads to **** and hang up and only give partial contact.
Lastly not knowing if the calipers have ever been replaced, every time someone pushes the caliper piston back in, to accept new pads, crap gets pushed in with the piston and eventually the caliper seizes or begins to leak. Do it right and do it once.
Brake parts are not that expensive and for what they do it's not worth the gamble to cut corners. If there is anything in what I have suggested that you do not understand, please don't hesitate to ask and I will try to answer your question.