Mystery of the smoking nuts

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I drive a Ford Taurus 1992, they had bad trans problems. So I started changing the ATF once a year. Never any problems with it.
 
The more I look at OP's picture the more it looks like the shoes are too big for the backing plate. Lining appears to be even with or above the outer edge of backing plate. The adjuster slot is also at the very top of the adjuster wheel, the front slot is above the top of the adjuster. Looks very "off" when compared to service manual illustration. Also didn't see any mention of year, make or model of the vehicle in question? Other than the deep groove in the drum were the original brakes working OK without getting hot or dragging?
 
The more I look at OP's picture the more it looks like the shoes are too big for the backing plate. Lining appears to be even with or above the outer edge of backing plate. The adjuster slot is also at the very top of the adjuster wheel, the front slot is above the top of the adjuster. Looks very "off" when compared to service manual illustration. Also didn't see any mention of year, make or model of the vehicle in question? Other than the deep groove in the drum were the original brakes working OK without getting hot or dragging?
64 valiant. Original brakes were “working” but sloppy with inconsistent presses, broke a front wheel cylinder on day 2 of ownership. I Replaced 2 others shortly after.
BRakes weren’t hot, but driver rear still had a rub that I originally guessed was a bad bearing. When I put the new shoes/drums/wheel cylinder/hardware on that’s when things when from bad to undriveable.

Shoes being too big too small/big for the drums was something I was wondering about but everything I saw was pretty consistent with sizes and what I needed. Maybe it’s a different backing plate than the original?

Been apart and put together so many times with different ideas. It’s going back to the brake shop at this point, hoping they can find something I’ve missed but my hopes are low considering they told me it was “all good, everything looks fine” when I first ran into the issue and now they’ve been too busy to get me back in the last couple weeks.
 
Updates: didn’t have to buy a ship anchor. Hope I got most of it sorted but still worried about overheating.

-changed hydraulic hose. Was pretty worn.
-brake fluid swap and blow out the lines.
-rebuilt and repositioned for the 5th time.
- ran the car on jacks to look for wobble, tired on/off/everything in between
-checked bearings again.
-remeasured rear drums and pads.
-countless test drives
- just about every tip from this thread

Finally was told how bad some modern replacement parts are getting the last few years and how even new ones have issues. I replaced 1 brand new master cylinder with another. And 2 new wheel cylinders which was probably overkill considering they were barely a month or two old. Hydraulic problem stopped for now but only a couple short drives deep so still worried. This also stopped the worst of the wheel drag. Got the drums and shoes machined and that stopped the rest of it.

Guessing the shoes would expand and not shrink back down, then become off kilter and start to dig into a groove into the drums.

Brakes still hot but now it’s all 4 and I haven’t seen anything smoke yet. Not sure how hot is too hot but I’m just assuming it’s working as intended now.

Halfway through this process my engine started disappearing its oil again, I supposed it’s onto that issue now.

Always, learned a lot from all this. Thanks for caring about my nuts.
 

Updates: didn’t have to buy a ship anchor. Hope I got most of it sorted but still worried about overheating.

-changed hydraulic hose. Was pretty worn.
-brake fluid swap and blow out the lines.
-rebuilt and repositioned for the 5th time.
- ran the car on jacks to look for wobble, tired on/off/everything in between
-checked bearings again.
-remeasured rear drums and pads.
-countless test drives
- just about every tip from this thread

Finally was told how bad some modern replacement parts are getting the last few years and how even new ones have issues. I replaced 1 brand new master cylinder with another. And 2 new wheel cylinders which was probably overkill considering they were barely a month or two old. Hydraulic problem stopped for now but only a couple short drives deep so still worried. This also stopped the worst of the wheel drag. Got the drums and shoes machined and that stopped the rest of it.

Guessing the shoes would expand and not shrink back down, then become off kilter and start to dig into a groove into the drums.

Brakes still hot but now it’s all 4 and I haven’t seen anything smoke yet. Not sure how hot is too hot but I’m just assuming it’s working as intended now.

Halfway through this process my engine started disappearing its oil again, I supposed it’s onto that issue now.

Always, learned a lot from all this. Thanks for caring about my nuts.
Remember, nobody can take care of Your nuts better than You can, but if You find a gal who can.....she's a keeper...
 
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