Projects front wheel locking up not moving freely

alright so on my 65 deville. the front p***enger wheel was locking up. i would go forward and it would be fine at first. then start to lock up and drag. so i replaced the cylinder as it was leaking(no fluid got on the shoes) and the hose. i had to use a mallet to get the drum back on. anyway when i first tested it worked great drove forward and reverse no issues, well an hour later its back to acting up. not dragging this time but its barely moving. any ideas to whats up? thanks guys also the master cylinder is new

 

Shoe adjustment?
No way a mallet should be needed to get the drum on

 

was the adjuster spinning? was it turned all the way in?
also check that there are not any grooves in the backing plate that are "hanging" the shoes up.

 

the adjuster seemed like it was turned all the way in

 

sounds like a broken brake spring to me

 

From my understanding - with the wheel bolted up and the car jacked up, you should be able to, by hand, spin the wheel, and it make about one full rotation before it stops by itself. You should hear a very slight drag of the shoes. Adjust the star wheel until you get that one rotation with light drag.

Make sure the wheel bearings are all greased up.

Having to use a hammer to install the drum sounds like the shoes are adjusted outward too much.

Also - you put on a new wheel cylinder but did you bleed all wheels when you did it and did you install a new brake hose off it? Sometimes they can look good but actually be collapsed inside. The fluid goes into the cylinder but cant be released, causing a drag. That was a problem with my 50 cad

 

New MC? Check that you have some clearence on the MC pushrod. If power brakes a quick check is to insert a flatwasher between the MC and power unit. If that solves the prob pushrod is a bit too long.

 

Are there new shoes or old ones that have run for awhile?

 

I did not bleed all the wheels but I did replace the hose

 

They were put in about 10-15 years ago. But the car was in storage right after that and was taken out a few months back

 

With the drum off and the adjuster backed off, the brake shoes should be against the anchor at the top. Also make sure the shoes are on correctly (shorter length shoe material to the front) and that the springs are on right. With badly worn backing plates, shoes can get hung up on the backing plate, so take a close look at that.

 

Cads got dual circuit masters years before the rest of the industry. Lock up the wheel & crack open the bleeders on each circuit. Sounds like no free play ...