Hy 51ashton, It sounds to me like you already inadvertantly performed one of the checks for booster function. When you held your foot on the brake pedal and started the engine and it went closer to the floor that indicated that the booster was functioning. It is a hard concept for some people to get their head around, but brake linnings can become glazed, that is they develope an extremely hard surface being used in the same direction all the time. I think that is what your dealing with now. To deal with this you can try a couple of things, first try a few hard stops in reverse, say five or so from 10 m.p.h. Now see if your forward stopping power improves, if it does you're on the right track, if that doesn't help remove the drums and scuff up your linnings with a fairly coarse emmery cloth then blow off the linnings and reinstall the drums and test your brakes. If neither of these tricks help I'm afraid it's reline time, hope this helps.
