[SeaSlugs]

yea if they were fine one day but messed up the next id suspect a broken return spring somewhere possibly one of the main springs inside a hub. the return springs on the brake rods dont offer a whole lotta help in retracting, mostly to keep some tension on the rods to keep them from rattling and wallowing out the brake hardware like miniature air hammers...

My advice is to pull the rods off the cross shaft and make sure the pedal and rod between pedal and cross shaft and cross shaft itself moves freely.(remove your "helper" spring -see below). Should flop forward and back pretty freely with no slop.

Then I would inspect each brake and move each lever - should be rather hard to move the arm to apply the brake and spring back to resting with some force. That force is what does the pedal retracting. If you find a soft one or one that you push and it just kinda stays there or feels gritty/rusty I would pull the drum and see whats going on inside. Also take note that the brake should just start to grab about 15* off center OPPOSITE of the direction the brake rod would pull it. At straight up and down the wheel should be locked solid. (might need a helper to do this) If not then you have internal brake issues that need addressed.

That aftermarket brake return spring helper is nothing more than a bandaid for improperly setup/worn out/ rusted up brakes.