[vincent]

After all, you are not completely backwards as a more powerful wheel cylinder, which does not travel enough distance to put all his pressure on the brake shoe, is indeed less efficient. So the fine line to balance on is: get the maximum leverage from foot pedal to MC, then a good ratio from MC to WC and finally make sure that your WCs travel far enough to put full pressure on the shoes. You could always add adjustable WCs to the backing plate to keep the brake shoes in close proximity to the drum or manufacture your own adjustable brake shoe stops to achieve the same goal. Thus the pulling springs will not pull the shoes (and the WC) too far away from the drum. This will give you minimal clearance between shoe and drum and thus the WC can put all his pressure on the shoe when the pedal is pushed down.