Because of where I work, I don't let the students behind the wheel or even inside a vehicle. Therefore, I am the one to push the pedal during bleeding. That means I didn't or couldn't hear the brake shoe springs while bleeding was going on. We redid the front shoes a few months ago and the rears were fine, so got left alone. That means the front shoes needed to be adjusted.

When we started trying to get pedal, I had adjusted the shoes out to contact. I should have done the step the TM calls for. Even though it seems wasted effort. "Adjust the shoes out until the drum will not turn. Loosen the adjuster until the drum turns with little resistance."

My drive last night and today was kind of hard because the brakes were hair trigger on the rear only. The rears would lock up in a second and the fronts didn't seem to be doing much. I picked the front end up and spun the tires. No drag, no scuff, no noises at all from the brakes. I pushed the pedal and had the students try to spin the tires. No resistance.

I adjusted and adjusted and adjusted and adjusted some more. Finally I had drag and not just a scuff noise. I push the pedal which had no change and had the students try. Nothing moved. I let go and they spun to stop when I pushed the pedal. My rears were so good, the master wasn't moving enough to push the front shoes out to contact. However, the little moving they were doing centered them up and created more travel. All is better now.

I figured somebody else would run into this at some point in the future and didn't want to feel like the only one it had ever happened to.