series 3 brake puzzle

hi everyone, im rebuilding my 1975 swb petrol here in Sweden, landy parts and advice is thin on the ground here to say the least!! hoping you guys can help with single circuit,single cylinder brakes.when i stripped the brakes to fit new cylinders and shoes i noticed that on one side of the landy the top spring was mounted to the back plate post and to the leading shoe, the trailing shoe held in place with only the bottom spring between both shoes (with the top of the shoe kinda flapping about !). the other side was different! ???
tried to follow a link on the forum without success, someone posted the same question, maybe the link has expired?
really appreciate your help not sure which setup is right.
oh yeah..are the cylinders different front and rear.? many thanks, Marc

There should be a spring between the backplate and the top of the leading shoe, a retaining plate bolted to the bottom of the trailing shoe, and a spring between the lower ends of both shoes. The hydraulic brake cylinders are a smaller diameter on the rear brakes. Don't worry about the top of the trailing shoe. The reason that the leading shoe needs a spring at the top is that drum brakes have a self-servo action. When the leading shoe comes into contact with the drum the friction between the drum and the shoe and the rotation of the drum actually pull the shoe harder against the drum. The self-sevo affect of the leading shoe is not wanted when you lift your foot off the brake, so to make sure the leading shoe releases, it needs a spring to pull it away from the drum. The trailing shoe has a kind of reverse self-servo effect so it does not need a spring to pull it away from the drum.

hey, thanks for the reply, its so much clearer now, no wonder the brakes were hopeless . one thing id like to clarify..the retaining plate you mention bolted to the shoes , ive got this plate the on the rear shoes only, is this right?
cheers,Marc--rebuilding a old wreck in a small shed.
ps -like you SWB lots

I'm assuming that you have the standard braking system on your Land-Rover (that is with only 1 hydraulic cylinder per wheel). All the trailing shoes should have a retaining plate. The trailing shoes are those facing the rear of the vehicle. The brakes on the front and rear axles should have the retaining plate on the trailing shoe. Later 88" series IIIs had 11 inch brake drums on the front axle with a twin leading shoe design (each shoe had it's own hydraulic cylinder)

to think i drove her 440kms home. so , i need to get hold of retaining plates for the front axle trailing shoes, these are missing. i´ll try one of the specialists tommorow. soon i´ll have brakes!!
cheers, and thanks for your help, marc.