White, do you have ABS or RABS?

 

RABS only.

 

Two links to uncommonon brakes problems. Hope they put you closer to a solution.
http://www.mightyautoparts.com/pdf/articles/gb0204.pdf
http://www.mightyautoparts.com/pdf/articles/gb1197.pdf

It is baffling that the drum comes off easily but the brakes drag.

 

After a lot of testing. It seems as though the brakes are not hanging up. I can throw the truck in nuetral on a slight grade and it will role w/o a problem, so I don't think they are hanging up. At the same time I can hop out of the truck to check the heat of the drum and the right rear is so hot that you can smell burning pad and it will scald the ***** out of your hand. The left is hot but it seems normal. I've bleed the lines and I don't think the flow is restricted. My next check will be to swap the right shoes for the left and see what happens. Either this problem is going to be way simple or something to the extreme. I just wish I could find the problem and be done w/ it!!

 

Blast all your braking mechanisms with WD-40 and let them soak. Don't get any on the pad/shoe material. Something is binding in there somewhere. If it's not sticking enough to stop it while going downhill in nuetral, sounds like one of your drums is sticking when you brake, causing the other drum to do all the braking because you have one brake binding. Thus the overheating on one side. Take it all apart, clean all mechanical braking parts with WD-40, blast them with brake cleaner, and re-install. Have your drums checked for roundness. That could cause your problem too. Might as well get some better pads too. "A pinched brake line can cause the same problem." Definatley check that out with a fine tooth comb. It happened on my grandpaw's truck. Which mysteriously sounds very similar to what you describe your truck is doing. I'd bet $$$ that's your problem.

 

How did you know that it was the pinched brake line? How did you test? I'm not saying it isn't, but my rear brakes expand and contract at the same rate leading me to think that isn't the problem.
What I really need to do is get 2 other bodies to help me w/ this. I need eyes on both sides of the truck to watch shoe movement to see if anything is out of the ordinary... errr something.

This is soooo frustrating!! Glad I have a car to drive till I figure it out!

 

My mechanic found the pinched brake line on my grandpaw's truck. Except it was on one of the front brakes. It would pull to one side whenever the brake pedal was depressed, and the left wheel area (rotor and pads) would smoke it got so hot!. You could not touch "the wheel" without getting burned. We replaced everything, even down to the calipers. But it still did it. It had us stumped , very much like you are right now. Which is why I have a very strong feeling that a "pinched brake line" just might be your problem.