Rear drum locks up going forward, frees up in reverse.

[Markuli]

I'm posting this in an attempt to save a fellow C10'er some headache.

I've been fighting with this phenomena for the past two weeks, ever since I replaced the drums and shoes on all four corners of my '67 1/2 ton (and swapped out wheel cylinders in the rear). Even with my adjustment star fully bottomed out, my drums would always have some friction on the driver's side rear wheel before I even set it back down on the ground.

When I would go drive after assembling the system, the truck would brake okay and I'd be able to drive around and adjust the shoes. But after I finished and I'd let it sit overnight, the right rear drum would, without fail, hang up and drag hard when I tried to move forward.

I took apart and reassembled/ inspected the whole shoe assembly three times over before I realized that my brake shoes would never really touch the upper pivot point at the top, which was odd because the passenger's side shoes contacted it just fine.

It turns out that the parking brake cable was frozen in place, which pushed out against the new shoes. This wasn't an issue with the old, worn out drums and shoes because they were much further spread- out within the assembly to make up for the lack of material. Now with new pads and full- thickness drums, the parking brake became a problem and limited how tight the pads could get to the pivot.

For the moment, I've just disconnected the parking brake lever from the cable itself so I still have use of it on the passenger's side. Today I'll head home and take the truck for a spin to see if it is finally freed up driving forwards, now that it's sat overnight, and that should confirm my suspicions.

So for anyone reading this post, if you're experiencing the same bizarre brake problems as me, check your parking brake and either adjust or replace your linkage.