C15A brakes jamming

[harrygrey382]

The brakes are sticking on my Chev. It's not that you apply and they stick, they are on fairly well, even with the shoes backed right off and hyd. pressure released. Jacked up I can hardly rotate each wheel, and it's really sapping power - can't get into 2nd while moving (lost momentum by the time it's in gear) and won't pull top on a flat. Motor is rebuilt.

I rebuilt (honed, new rubbers, all new lines, new linings) the brakes on my C15A. Problem is that was about 12 years ago. It then sat for "a while". I know alarms bells are now going off about brakes sitting unused with fluid in them. At the time, there were so many things going on, and I was so thrilled to finally be driving it (a rolling chassis with no go pedal or seat) I didn't pay much attention to how it was getting along.

Fast forward 'till now and I'm revisiting all the work I did in the past
I've tried tightening the shoes as hard as I can then backing them off. In my mind, this is pushing the pistons back in the cylinders, then I back them off, in theory creating clearance between the shoe and drum. That is, assuming the pressure is caused by the pistons sticking out. But this doesn't help, they're still just as stiff before.

So now I'm thinking, maybe the linings are too thick or something's assembled wrong (in each wheel, unlikely). Am I missing something or is my logic correct here? I'll have to pull the drums off I know but just getting things right in my head first, and haven't had time yet either...

Pedal feels good btw