Drum brake installation troubles...

Yup. I always think of it this way, brake shoes are like a mullet, short in the front long in the rear.

So what you are telling me is that either long shoe or either short shoe won't work on one side or the other. If you are thinking about the e brake lever I have always had to take it off the old shoe and put it on the new. I have never bought a set of shoes with that on there.

I guess I must be confused here, becuase in close to 40 years of working on these I have never known they were right or left side specific. I have always made sure the long shoe was in the rear and the short in the front. Other than that.......