Brakes: R series truck brake pedal travel

[c locke]

Well, my rear axle swap went very well, and while I was under there I replaced the brake lines going from the "T" mounted on the axle to the two rear wheel cylinders. I bled the rear brakes (i had the line capped during the axle swap), topped off the master cylinder, and tried the pedal. It went down quite lower than before, in fact, when the brake pedal was hard, it was even with the gas pedal. So, I started from scratch, inspected the master cylinder (found the refill port plugged) so i cleaned everything up, honed, rebuilt, then bled all four wheels again. I made sure the wear adjusters worked, and adjusted the eccentrics on all 8 shoes to make sure the shoes were as close to the drums as possible. And after all that work, bled the brakes again. I've bled the system 4 times, at all 4 corners, and the brake pedal still travels down until it is even with the gas pedal. If I pump the pedal once, it comes up about half way from the floor, which is where the pedal used to be. any more than a 1 second delay in between the pumps and the pedal sinks down to the gas pedal level. So, can someone out there with an R series half ton make a measurement from the floor to where the brake pedal gets hard without pumping? I don't have an inch measurement because it is visible and right even with the gas pedal. thanks in advance
chris

[RadioRoy]

If the pedal comes up with one pump, chances are that the shoes are not adjusted close enough to the drums.

[c locke]

I pulled the shoes and rotated the eccentrics all the way round a couple times, to make sure they were free. backed them all the way off, both front and rear, set the slack adjuster button and wedge, and put the drum on. I then spun the drum and adjusted each eccentric until i could feel the drum start to drag, and hear the shoe scraping the drum. then backed it off just a shade. That's basically how the manual said to do it... how close do they have to be? I couldn't get them one ratchet click closer without having them hit the drum... what do you think?

[c locke]

Radioroy, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth... i went back into the garage, and took my ratchet to all 8 eccentrics. I found one that took one click of the ratchet, and one that took maybe 1/4 turn. That doesn't sound like much... but the pedal is back up to where it's supposed to be... thanks for being the voice of reason!
c

[RadioRoy]

It's always that one eccentric that gets you!