[Engine-Ear]

Just throwing this out there: even TINY amounts of air in a DOT-5 fluid system can cause sh!t like this to creep up.

Not sure what also to say, but I have sworn off DOT-5 fluid after too much aggravation from minute amounts of air in the system causing too many driveability (stop-ability?) problems.

[Heybuck]

Just a thought on this, are you sure you have the brake adjusters in the correct side?

I think I recall that there is a specific left & right side and if that's so and they are wrong, you might not be getting the correct distance between the shoe and the drum.

[Redpiston]

Isn't there a main and secondary shoe? If you have those flipped you might get more travel also.

[Terry M. Hunt]

I've been using silicone brake fluid for over 25 years in 4 cars, so I'm familiar with its drawbacks. Haven't had this low pedal issue with any of the other cars. Still, the easiest thing to try first is another bleed session or two, so I'll do that. Given the fact that I started with a completely empty system, I can see how it may take longer(more sessions) to purge all the bubbles. I'm positive I got the short shoe and long shoe in the correct position, because I recall searching on these forums to confirm what shoe went it front and what shoe in back before I started the brake job, since I recall the '65 shop manual(and other years as well) showing this backwards. I did the brake work one side at a time, so there would be no chance of mixing left and right parts. The adjusters went back on the wheel they came off of, and since I did not have this low pedal issue in the past, I don't believe the adjusters have gotten mixed up. However, if further bleeding doesn't solve this, I will pull both front drums and recheck shoe position and adjuster function. Seems like it has to be one these three things causing my problem.