i am in the middle of replacing the drums and shoes on my sons 1962 Fairlane. Can anyone tell me do the short shoes go forward or isnt it the long shoe? Should be same as mustang right? Need help I put it back together as the guy before me (short shoe forward) and now it is super tight will barely turn adjusted all the way in? Ryan

 

Short shoe to the front.

Make sure the park brake is releasing all the way. It's common for the park linkage to not fully retract causing what you're seeing.

 

Larger to the rear. Auto adjuster hardware go on the rear shoe, the adjuster spring mounts to the smaller shoe. Mounting the shoes wouldn't make the brakes drag would it?
You may want to check your auto-adjuster bolts. Make sure the left one is on the left side of the car etc. The adjuster is marked on the un-threaded end (under the cap) R or L. It also has 1 groove for left, two for right hand side of the car. Of course right is the passenger side.
You may need to adjust the parking brake due to the new "meat". Adjust the screw on the equalizer arm (where the 2 rear cables connect to the arm under the car). Also check the parking brake spacer arm (inside the rear wheels), sometimes it comes off while connecting the brake springs. This might cause your brakes to drag. It drove me nuts trying to do it alone. I'd finally get it connected only to find that linkage/arm had slipped off, yet again.
The last thing to check.. did you put the auto-adjusting lever in the large hole or the small one at the bottom of the larger shoe? It goes in the larger one and you will have to really stretch it to fit it in. (it's spring also goes in the larger hole on the opposing (smaller) shoe.) I was really tired by my last drum and couldn't figure out why it went in so easy without really stretching out the spring.
Do you know if it is both sets of wheels that are dragging? Jack it up and see if the front and back both grab. If it's the back only, you would want to start by checking the parking brake setup. If it's only one of the 4 wheels, then you can compare it to the non-dragging ones to find the problem.

 

Short shoe forward,I am super tired, I think it may be parking brake adjustment, I will check that in the morning. Parking brake spacer arm is good, I think I may have to let some "slack" out of the parking brake because it will hardly go n now. Too tired goin to bed. Thanks Very much for the help!!!! I will check back tomorrow.
Oh yeah, we did a front disc conversion so it is just the back, I think/hope its just the parking brake needs adjustment. Oak