drum brake adjustment...

It's been quite a while since I last had to adjust drum brakes. Went over them on the wagon during the weekend. The adjuster star moves freely and everything looks good. They were definitely on the loose side. Surprisingly the knockouts for the adjusters are still in the backing plates. I didn't remove them yet.

The typical adjust until a slight drag on the drum is felt is quite challenging with a posi rear and the driveshaft and whatnot turning... I adjusted them until the drum dragged just slightly going back on and with what I felt was a slight drag when turning, but hard to really tell. I also did a few quick stops in reverse after it was all back together. Overall it seems like they are working a bit better.
Anyone have any other tips?

They are self-adjusting. If the shoes develope a large travel, the adjusting mechanism is malfunctioning. That is why there is no window in the backing plate.

The brakes were not adjusted properly when they were installed by someone else 15ish years ago, right before the car was parked... I didn't realize they were so far off when I went over things to put the car back on the road. The adjusters move just fine by hand.

I just did mine, and i did the same thing you did, adjusted until i felt drag then did other side other way.

Then i took car to ice covered parking lot and slammed on brakes to see which way car back end swayed. Lucky for me it stayed pretty straight, so i was happy with adjustment. I also double checked if they grabbed at same time by spinning wheels then seeing if slight pressure locked both back drums up at same time. Perfect.

Glad i did it in winter cause ice covered parking lots are all but gone now.

Icy roads/parking lots aren't common around here... but I like that method!