Another Drum Brake Problem

That slot is what I'm referring to in my old thread. Maybe you can open it up VERY CAREFULLY with a dremel or something, then check if the lever will engage the star wheel when you press the parking brake pedal with every hair you shave off to open it up.
Odd problem but using my OEM star wheel fixed my issue. The OEM fork allows the brake panel to sit deeper in it.

Also I apologize if the discussion has moved past this part already but I didn't read too carefully (just got off a night shift). I didn't mess with my bell cranks at all.

 

Last little piece of input.
If the angle of star wheel to lever arm doesn't correct when you get the fork to seat more deeply, it could be an issue of star wheel distance from the end of the fork vs OEM. But I didn't notice any difference there when I was working on my drums, and I'm fairly certain I would've checked that.
Bending the lever arm to fix the angle of engagement is not the way to go. I snapped a lever arm attempting that, thin piece of metal and is pretty weak...
This is a lesson to never throw away any old OEM part immediately. Hell I even saved my dirty old PCV valve just in case.
I think it would be worth it to go to a junkyard and just pull OEM star adjuster forks from an old truck's drums just to see if it fixes your issue and potentially save yourself further headache. Fingers crossed for you my guy.

 

@DarkMint Thanks for the advice. I think I am going to keep an eye out for OEM star wheels and see if that works.

 

I have to adjust my rear drums manually. They don't adjust automatically whatsoever, so I just make it a part of a regular oil change. One bit of interesting news is that my brake adjuster cable (the cable inside the drum brake assembly) snapped recently, and when I replaced it I noticed the parking brake is WAY more effective. So maybe that little cable is stretched, making the parking brake less effective. I'm going to replace the one on the other side to see what happens. It remains to be seen if these cables impact the self-adjusting mechanism. I'll follow up with any findings.