VL rear brake lining thickness?

I am peicing together rear brakes on my VL. I have brake shoes with what appear to be good used linings, however when I install shoes on backing plate and into drum, the linings are too tight in the drum. The rear wheel will barely turn. Can anybody tell me what the thickness of the rear brake linings should be. Can old linings swell, they do not fit right for some reason. Thanks!!

[Pa]

Bevel the leading and trailing ends of the linings. This may be the real reason why the shoes are tight.

Thanks PA, I am going to try that. My brake lever arm at the side plate has almost no play when I try to move it by hand. Don't know how much slack I would have with brake pedal installed, since I do not have those parts yet. I think I heard somewhere about using a sanding flapper on a drill to bevel linings, I will get one tomorrow,

[Pa]

The material will file off as well. If material is asbestos...be sure to use a mask so you don't breathe in any dust. A 30 degree chamfer should do the trick for you.