82 Caddy strange drum brake goings on..

I'm almost stumped.  Not quite, but almost.  I'd like to preface this with =
saying I have an 81 wotj 640K miles on it, and this 400K 82 was mine eight =
or ten years ago and I recently got her back.  I've done rear brake jobs on=
 both of them more than once in the past, and I'm certainly not infallible =
but this ain't my first rodeo.

So, I put new brake cables, drums, shoes, hardware and wheel cylinder on th=
e rear of the 82 Caddy.  It had an e-brake that was out of adjustment room,=
 and the adjusting wedge in the rear brakes was all the way down and the dr=
ums were obviously badly worn, though the shoes were not worn out.


My first problem is the hand brake has to be adjusted all the way down, the=
 adjusting nuts, to tighten up well. Normally I adjust so they are tight at=
 three clicks up, I can't get these tight at three clicks up at all.

My second problem is the brake pedal is low, the master cylinder is new and=
 well bled with a pressure bleeder. I believe it is related to the parking =
brake adjusting strangeness.

I've measured the ID of the drums and they are 199.75mm or so. I've eyeball=
ed the shoes, and a 2nd set I bought locally, and they are "pretty damn clo=
se" to each other, though I believe the 2nd set has a quarter or half MM mo=
re pad material.

The wheel cylinders are TRW's that I'm pretty sure I've used before, they a=
ll bled out fine.


What is going on here? Near as I can tell there is excessive clearance betw=
een the shoe linings and the drum.  I've visually compared the cables onlin=
e and they look to be right, as was the part number on the packaging but it=
's almost like they are too long, or there is excessive clearance between t=
he shoes and drum. The auto-adjuster wedge dropped half way right off the b=
at, I manually snugged them up and it didn't help much. I don't believe it'=
s the drums, I don't think it's the shoes but I'm not willing to say it 100=
%, I can't see how the wheel cylinders would do this as they extend quite f=
ar and sort of float on a spring between the cups, I guess the parking brak=
e cables could be too long but they are Coife and correct far as I can tell=
, there just seems to be too much clearance between the drums and the shoes=
. Not even counting the low pedal, the parking brake really ought to adjust=
 snug with everything new at three clicks up or so, not adjusted full tight=
 and handle pulled ALL the way up.
My next step is to measure the brake cables, though I found a range of list=
ed lengths for the Caddy.  Next is order some Febi shoes, I think what I ha=
ve on there are Meyle.  Next is replace the damn backing plate although I d=
on't see any inappropriate wear, final step is a disk brake conversion.
The only other clue I can offer is a very low at rest/up position of the br=
ake pedal, but I don't believe this is a hydraulic issue since they do in f=
act auto-adjust, and the parking brake cannot be adjusted satisfactorily.

Thoughts?