Weird front brake noise after new shoes

[Rust-O-Matic]

I just replaced the wheel cylinders, shoes, hardware, springs, self adjusters, wheel seals, and repacked the bearings on the front of my '66 C20. The two flat head screws in the original (presumably) drums are permanently frozen in place, so I pulled the whole hub to get it off. The driver side turned out great, but the passenger side makes a loud, repetitive, echoey scraping/chirping noise when I rotate the wheel/drum. Its not smooth either, like something is rubbing. It makes 8 noises per rotation so I assume its something interfering w the back of the wheel studs. I have taken it apart numerous times, adjusted and re-adjusted the castle nut on the spindle/bearing, retracted the shoes all the way in, shifted them side to side, flipped them over, and inspected the springs numerous times to make sure nothing looked like it was sticking out. The wheel seal is completely seated and the backing plate doesnt look warped or bent. It pretty much has to be something touching the studs. I'm about to tear my hair out. Nothing seems to affect the noise.

Has anyone had anything like this happen? Any ideas on what else to check? I think my next plan of attack is to drill the screws out of the drums and bash the hub out of the center so I can put it on seperately and see what's going on without the drum in the way. Had to give up for the day though, and I'm sitting here scratching my head. I intended to attach a pic but its too big and I don't know how to shrink it on my phone.

[Rust-O-Matic]

Here's before and after pics if anybody is interested. If you see anything obviously screwed up, by all means, let me know. I'm gonna take another crack at it this evening.

[Palf70Step]

I think you got the shoes reversed. Your leading edge (front) should be the shorter shoe. Not sure if that will give you the noise you are describing. Were the drums new? If they are slightly out of round that could give you the noise also. When I had my drums turned, I had them separate it from the hub.

[Chevy Fleetside]

I would say he has the shoes reversed. Like said I dought that would make a noise. You should swap those around.

[Rust-O-Matic]

Thanks guys. I think you are both right about the shoes, I flipped them around last night (didn't get a pic) and reinstalled everything, but same noise still. I'm headed home from work for round two.

[Chevy Fleetside]

Check the bearings

[Rust-O-Matic]

Thanks again for the input, guys. Last night was a success... mostly. After I got the hub and drum separated, I could see the noise was caused by the wheel studs juuuuust barely rubbing the spring on the self adjuster arm. I adjusted the shoes out a couple of threads (it started out all the way retracted), and made sure the spring was pulled as close as possible to the arm with a pair of vice grips. Problem solved!

The bad news is, separating the drum and hub didn't go exactly as I would have liked it to. I drilled the two flat head screws out in the drill press, no problem. Then I put a piece of scrap steel over the hub and attempted to knock it out of the drum with my trusty sledge-o-matic. No dice. So I put it in my press, and started pumping. I have never seen cast iron flex as much as the flange on the drum did before the two pieces came apart! I thought for sure it was going to shatter into a thousand pieces. It didn't though, and slowly came apart. Although it seems to have distorted the drum just enough to make it not want to go back onto the hub now. No big loss though, I really should have bought new drums to start with. I was just trying to avoid throwing another $100 at it.

Once I got everything put back together (minus the drum that won't go back onto the wheel studs) I realized the hole the spindle dust cap goes into got a little boogered up in the process, and now the cap won't go back in because it's out of round. It doesn't appear to have affected the bearing area of the hub though, just the very outer lip, so I think I can just clean it up with a carbide bur or file.

One step forward and three steps back. At least that god awful noise is gone though I guess. I'll get new drums and dust caps ordered soon, and go ahead and separate the other side's drum/hub in the meantime. Then it's on to making new lines, and putting the new double master cylinder in.

[Chevy Fleetside]