My 19 year old came by today in his pick up. Low on brake fluid he said. Looking at wetness on the inside of the driver's rear tire, it was obvious the rear cylinder had blown. Replaced the cylinder and shoes but could not get the drum back on over the new shoes. Double checked the installation and compared the new shoes to the old ones. The installation was proper and the shoes matched up. Tried swapping the drums. Tried forcing the drum over the new shoes. There is contact with the drum from the top of the linings to the bottom, indicated by friction scores. Even when I did manage to hammer the drum in place the wheel did not turn acceptably. The star adjuster is bottomed out closed. There is not that big a difference in the new lining thickness to warrant this difficulty. What in Hell is going on here?

 

if the adjuster is bottomed out closed, is the wheel cyl pistons fully retracted? If they are, i would bet the problem is with the parking brake. More often than not, the park brake cables will sieze in the slightly applied position. You dont notice it with worn away shoes and drums, but when you put all new on, there is now too much material. Try disconnecting the park brake cables from their levers, and see what happens.

 

The cylinder is new and retracted. No fluid inside yet. There is no tension on the parking brake cable. I am off to the parts store to see if new drums are slightly bigger, even though that doesn't make sense. Either that is the case or I was sold irregular (or wrong) shoes. Something ain't right here.

 

Drum(s) back on. I know I did wrong and that I deserve to lose my membership and go to FTE Hell for it, but I reused the forward (less worn) shoes. Turned in 1/2 of a brand new set with the rearward (worn out) ones for the core charge. It had to be a frozen e-brake cables. I didn't want to disassemble all for the 5th time to figure it out.

I was almost expecting the rims not to fit over the studs after the trouble I had (HA!).

 

The gables can be slack yet the park brake remains applied, likely the cause of your issue with it.
You'd likely notice it as the shoes wouldn't both be tight to the anchor pin, one but not both.

If you hadn't simply laying the new shoes on top the old (or vise versa) would have shown any difference in them, if you felt they gave you the wrong shoes.

If they where not the correct shoes it would have been readily apparent doing so, same with say the wheel cylinder.

 

I checked the shoes carefully against the old ones. The only difference was that the lining extended further lengthwise on the forward shoes. The width was the same. I can see how frozen cables aft of the yoke could cause slightly expanded shoes and be the cause of the difficulty. Could've replaced the cables to the wheels. I could also replace a ton of things starting at the front bumper and ending at the rear bumper.

Will keep an eye on the brakes for a while. Thanks for the replies.