I'm hearing more and more of this stuff. I'm beginning to wonder if the new brake drums are not as ridged as the old drums were. Maybe they cut back on the iron content or something and the new "modern" drums are flexing more then the OEM stuff did. If the drums are distorting when the brakes are applied, how would you expect the parking brake to function correctly?

I replaced the 9" drums on my Dakota chassis under my 49 truck, I bought the new drums of the "bay" place because they were the same brand (and part #) the local stores were selling at about 2x the price. One drum was warped, I had it turned .060 (max turn allowed) and its a lot closer to round then it used to be, but still not round. I'm not really expecting that to last long before the warp comes back. Its also kind of hard to not believe the other drum is really true.

When you put the brake shoes inside of the drum, they probably look great, but the top of the shoes are against an unmoving anchor post, and the bottom of the shoes are floating. How far out does the adjusted have to be turned before the bottom of the shoes are pushed against the drum before the top makes contact, as the wheel cylinder pushes the top of the shoe outward? The E brake generally pushes the top of the shoes outward off the anchor post until it either runs out of movement, or the shoes make contact to the drum, stepping firmly on the brake pedal before setting the e brake may help a bunch.