Drum brake seized... Please help!

Hello all,

I hope someone can help me with an issue I am having with my front right wheel drum. The other day I was driving my 71 Duster around and noticed some rattling/rubbing sound from that side. I jacked and blocked the car up and tugged on the tire and wheel to check for a bad bearing and that checked out ok, so then I took off the wheel to see what was going on. The wheel didn’t spin very well (I know that proper adjustment the wheel with the tire on should make one revolution with a good spin by hand before stopping) but this seemed weird. I thought I'd loosen the adjustment wheel so I could remove the drum all together.
I got the screwdriver through the slot and could here what I thought was the adjustment wheel ratcheting in one direction. The wheel drum didn't spin any better, so I went the other direction with the adjustment wheel a few ratchets and now the wheel drum doesn't spin at all!!! :angry7:
I looked in the access holes closer with a flashlight and saw bent pieces of what used to be the adjustment wheel spring. :( I also noticed that the adjustment wheel teeth are shaped more like saw teeth making it easier to spin one way and not the other. (I think my 65 cuda had uniform teeth)
So when I first started out, my screwdriver was actually sliding over the surface of the teeth, and not grabbing, but making a ratcheting sound and this deceived me.
So now no matter how hard I try, the adjustment wheel will not turn back the other way even using a screwdriver and tapping with a hammer.
I hope this is something I can fix and won't have to take to a shop! I have the disc brake set up off of another duster and this might be my motivation to get that conversion project underway along with new front-end bushings and an anti-sway bar.
I feel stupid since I used to replace the drum brakes myself on my 65 Barracuda years ago and also helped others replace theirs!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :)