Brake Problems - Pedal to the floor/Stuck drum

Alright, got in over my head here. I just rebuilt by rear brakes about a month ago (new drums, shoes, fluid, wheel cylinders, and system bled). And, after the rebuild, they were GREAT. The lines pressurized correctly and my stopping power was solid.

Today, as I was driving, I noticed my pedal was getting mushy and, then, it was going straight to the floor. It would still slow the CJ down to a stop, but, clearly, not how it is supposed to function.

So, I got home to see if my rebuild was lousy. Still don't trust my own skills. I went to pull the drum of the rear driver-side wheel and that puppy was STUCK. After loosening the auto-adjust as much as possible and bleeding the fluid off that cylinder, I was able to knock it off with a hammer. After removing it, I inspected the drum (new at the rebuild) and it was still in great shape. No irregular wear and no groove for the shoes to hang up on. The shoes and springs and everything appeared to still be in the correct places.

The only thing I could see internal to the drum was the spring connected with the auto-adjust seemed quite loose.

Any ideas?

I have not pulled or inspected the front brakes yet. I'm sure some of the lack of power will be coming from that end of things... but that shouldn't affect my new build on the back (or does the combination valve screw around with pressure between the axles?). And, still doesn't give me a clue why that drum was stuck.

Edit: Poked around the combination valve just out of curiosity AND, it is missing the "Switch Terminal" pieces. Was this something tied to the vacuum system (which is gone on my rig) or is it something I need to replace pronto?

 

Alright, a little evolution on this problem and my understanding of it all. Had my father over to talk it through and he's much better at it than I:

Pedal to the floor - He thinks that this is just air in the system that I didn't get purged completely. I am going to go with that theory tomorrow and re-do my bleeding.

Drum sticking - His opinion was this is actually just a correctly installed and adjusted brake job. He said that I likely hadn't backed the auto-adjust off enough before I tried the first couple of times and that the shoes with jam that drum in place if they are where they should be. Interesting... so, by doing something correctly, I actually caused myself grief later.

 

The proper way to adjust the shoes is to use a caliper to size the shoes to the drum. You then drive the Jeep to even out the adjustment. The procedure is to back up at a few mph and apply the brakes firmly, several times. This activates the self-adjusters and brings all the shoes to the same adjustment.

Here is the caliper:



http://www.tooltopia.com/kd-tools-3...&utm_term=KDT3377&utm_campaign=googlebase_18u

This is what the pros use. I own one. Quite a specialized tool, but saves a lot of time fiddling with a brake spoon.

 

That will go on the list! Looks very handy.

The experience on these brakes keeps evolving. I bet you guys just read my ramblings and shake your heads.

At any rate, tore into the front brakes out of curiosity today. The adjuster spring was snapped in half on the front passenger drum. Hmm, bet that makes a difference in my braking power. At any rate, going to rebuild the front, bleed the entire thing again, and see if I still have a problem. Money is that I don't.