Brake Shoes sitting wrong

OP
You know about primary and secondary shoes right?
The shoes with the longer pads on them, go to the rear of the car.
Make sure the parking cable comes all the way out of it's sheath; you may have to back off the cable adjuster. When properly installed, properly adjusted, and the shoes tight to the anchor pin, the correctly oriented strut will be slightly loose, only the anti-rattle spring giving the illusion of it being tight..
If you install the strut wrong, the anti-rattle spring will bind up.