Greetings All,

I'm leaning towards a combination of all 3 here, but looking for some ideas before I dive in tomorrow on my day off to resolve this. TBU 13WL

Symptoms:
-50% of the time (literally 50/50) for 3 months or so: when turning RIGHT and pulling out into traffic/the road/etc. from a dead stop, the brake light on the dash will illuminate for ~500 yards or so as I'm straightening out the wheel and getting up to speed.
-Yesterday I drove about 100 miles. For 75 of those, the steering wheel had a HARD pull left, no matter which lane I was in or terrain I was on. the last 25 or so seemed to track pretty straight. AND, my mpg's were down from 18ish to the 14's on the same roads I travel daily. I'm very observant.
-Today, it started off tracking straight for 10ish miles, and then the hard pull left returned. returned to tracking straight after a series of HARD braking. I was alone and I mashed the pedal as if I were bedding the brakes in for the first time. The first mash was solid, the second mash was as if I was pushing on a boulder. There was NO pedal feel just hard as crap and virtually no brakes. BUT, the truck again began tracking straight after the hard braking, and the pedal feel returned in seconds.
-The rear dums: ever since I replaced the bell-cranks/shoes/hardware a year ago, I have always had a struggle with the adjusting bolt/lock nut, and their respective clearances from the backing plate. I have lost the Driver's side adjusting bolt and lock nut, twice now, and currently have neither on the driver's side, so the rear shoes could be out of whack.


Where would you begin?

The brake light warning could be low fluid level in the reservoir.

The brake shoe adjusting "bell cranks" (not the one you mention about the park brake bell cranks) are specific to a side. Since you replaced the two, probably you got the two switched. When installed incorrectly they can push the brake shoes towards the drum to apply brakes or no adjustment at all.