Parking brake operation

I have relined the brake shoes with NOS linings. The brake lever is set correctly to 3/32" clearance on the backing plate.

When the shoes are tucked in neatly by hand to form a concentric circle with the drum, I can slip the drum on and everything turns nicely as it should. No problem.

But when I operate the lever, although the drum binds up as it should, after the lever is released the shoes do not retract as you would expect. There is dragging that continues at about the 2 o'clock position as viewed from the rear. To try and see what was going on, I took the drum off, realigned the shoes, and operated the lever without the drum in place. The lever pulls the brake cam which seems not to open both shoes equally as you would expect, but only seems to shift the upper shoe to the right. See at the arrow below. When the lever is released, the upper shoe does not reset to the original position, it remains to the right which would cause the drag on the drum. The lower shoe barely seems to move at all.

The brake does seem to "work", in that the drum is stopped from spinning. But the point of contact with the shoes is in one place only (2 o'clock on the upper shoe) and the top shoe does not retract back to its original position again, hence the dragging. Doesn't seem right to me.

Is this pretty much normal for this setup, and perhaps just not the best design?

Or do I have something else going on here that needs attention before I button it all up?

Thanks,

Mike

In case the previous suggestions don't "free up" the stuck shoe, I'd suggest using a screwdriver or dowel to hold the shoe that moves (pin between lip on backing plate across shoe) and then actuate to see if stuck shoe is still binding or will in fact move.  Grease on the contact points would have been my first thought but there may be something catching or making contact preventing that one shoe from moving freely.