R drum brake pads supposed to be totally clean and dry or have fluid?

Hello,
After sitting for about a year, my drum brakes on my 66 mustang have been making a noisy sound just seconds before coming to a complete stop.
The brakes seem to work fine, but just at that last second I get a loud sort of rubbing, sticking sound before it stops. Otherwise everything else seems fine.
I opened up the system and found that there is still plenty of room on the pads...but did notice a bit of oil or grease or fluid on the pads.
I am thinking that these should be totally dry and not have any fluid on them...I am going to dry and replace the system; but thought I might see if there was any chance that the pads were supposed to have some sort of fluid coating on them.

I'm hoping that a dry pad would be the solution to this.
Thanks,
Micah  

pads must be dry, no oil film on them, check axle seal, and wheel cylinder, by pulling back the rubber dust boot, if any brake fluid is present, the wheel cylinder is leaking, and must be replaced, as well as the shoes, clean the drum with Brake clean.  

Hi there and thanks for the response.
So I cleaned the pads off but the sound still remained and nothing really changed. It still grips or groans and shudders a bit just  when it is coming to a final stop. I'm not sure what to do about that now.

I did however take your advice and tried to check for leakage in the wheel cylinder. I am not 100% if I checked the right thing, but I added a pic to make sure. I think I found the rubber dust boot and pulled it back and indeed fluid did come out when I pulled it back. I circled the part that I pulled back in the pic. Is this the right piece?

I did the same to the other side and it was dry and nothing came out.

So does this mean I have a leaking wheel cylinder and it needs to be replaced? Do you think this might be the reason for the noise when stopping?

Thanks so much!
Micah  

yep, thats your problem, nothing should have come out from that dust boot, if there is even a slight amount of fluid on the shoes they will grab, and shutter, best to get new shoes, i have baked the shoes in the oven,, But the females get upset with the smoke, or doing powder coating in the house..  

cool...thanks for helping me solve the problems....so new wheel cylinder and also new brake pads? The pads are pretty new, but it sounds like it is difficult to get the pads off.

How easy is it to convert the front drums to disk brakes. I know there are kits...I'm not incredibly skilled at auto repair, but have the basics down...I have replaced the drum brakes a few times which is not the easiest task.....the kit looks pretty basic, but not sure how long it would take me.

Thanks,
M  

Iam not sure about the kits, from what i have seen in the instructions on one kit, it is  easy to do in a day, have been thinking of doing it myself, but still have to get wheels and motor on the car and finish the welding..  

Once contaminated with fluid, shoes/pads are forever ruined. I have thought about trying 54packman's oven trick on my original 1966 GT350 rear brakes shoes that got soaked with b fluid. They were special metallic material. Now I have standard brake material. Do a little research on Mustang brake jobs and learn the right way to change shoes. I find the most challenging part is reassembly of the parking brake link/spring and parking brake actuator fitting up with the shoes and brakes cylinder push-rods. Of course this is on the rear. Get yourself a brake spring tool for removing and appling the springs safely. Pliers are not a good idea, especially when they slip and you are pulling straight toward your face. Ask me how I know, and then the blood starts trickling down your forehead.

Upper tool is cheaper and will perform. Lower is more serious.
 

i normally use the upper tool, as well as the brake spring hold down tool, only take apart one side at a time, use the other side as a referance, last thing you want to do is mix up left side adjusters with the right..