UPDATE: I adjusted the shoes to the point that its almost a two man job getting the drums on. We checked the wheel cylinders, if you just depress the pedal, nothing. If you start pumping it they will start engaging. Regardless the pedal still feels really damn soft. Ill do the e-brake thing tomorrow when I have the time and then readjust them. If still nothing, bleeding it is!
This indicates you have two problems maybe three
First check your plumbing of the M/C. If an oem dual reservoir system, the rearmost reservoir should be feeding the front brakes. The line should go to the top end of the Combination switch, and then immediately branch off to the left and right calipers.
Now to understand what's going on, you have to know what's going on inside the M/C. It has two modes of operation; normal, and emergency.
Inside the M/C are two pistons. The rearmost operating the front brakes, and the frontmost operating the rear brakes.
In Normal mode, there will be a fluid filled chamber between them, and when you step on the pedal, they all work together, pushing fluid out to the slaves, the front piston being pushed along by the fluid trapped between them in a hydraulic lock.
Now that rearmost piston has a protruding pin on the front end, so that if a failure occurs in the front brakes, that protrusion will now slide forward, and butt up against the front piston, and operate the rear system. In doing so, the brake pedal will drop down a couple of inches. But if the rear brakes are seriously out of adjustment.... the pedal may end up on the floor.
Now, you also need to know that the first 1/2 inch or so of pedal travel is used to operate the compensating ports. These are the little holes you see in the bottom of the chambers. Through these, compensation is provided for the wearing of the parts, and the fluid returns back into the chambers, to prevent the continual dropping of the pedal, making the front brakes self-adjusting.
Now let's get to your problem
You provided two very big clues. You said that after several pumps, the pedal came up and some braking occurred. This tells me three things:
1) the compensating ports are working. I know this because in rapid stroking, the fluid does not have time to return thru those little tiny holes
2) Uou did not say that once you had done this, that the pedal began to drop, while you had pressure on the pedal. This tells me that the M/C is OK, and there are no leaks in the system
3) You said the pedal was real damn soft. You did not say spongy. The soft pedal is usually a pointer to a mechanical issue. A spongy descriptor usually points to a hydraulic issue.
so now we need a plan of action
And the first thing I want to know is if the brake fluid is in the chamber between the M/C pistons. And the only way to prove that is to bench bleed the damn M/C. Well there is another way but it takes longer and is much more labor intensive. I'll tell you anyway.
You get all 4 wheels off. Then pop the front calipers off and C-clamp the pistons into the bottom of the bores. Guess what you just did? You pushed all the fluid in the front system back up into the M/C, and forced any air with it that might have been hanging around up near the port. Leave the clamps on.
Then you remove the drums And all the rear brake parts, including the rubber cups at the wc's. Then you C-clamp those pistons in there.
Finally you go step on the pedal. You should have a hi, rock-hard pedal...... because nothing can move. If the pedal is otherwise, now you have proved there is air in the system. If the pedal falls while the pressure is on, you have proved the M/C is bad, or rather one or more of the rubber cups inside are. This test is absolute.
If you do this test, and determine that air is still in there, the first place I would look is in that inter-piston region, which requires a bench-bleed.
See what I mean? a lotta labor to just do the bench-bleed anyway.
The bench-bleed is usually considered a no-brainer procedure. But that is far from the case. So take your time and do it right.
Then reinstall it, bleed the connections, and retest for a hard hi pedal.
..... Now there is one exception, and that is if the system was working fine, before you changed the shoes. That pretty much precludes a hydraulic issue, and that takes us back to what you said, namely "pretty damn soft", and my conclusion that this is a mechanical issue.
Then
assuming the shoes are the correct width for the backing plates and the right diameter for the drums, and the parking brake was backed off before trying to adjust the brakes......
Wait
You did back off the parking brake right?
