Good point on the drum adjustment too. I'd bet on that helping you out. You may have too much clearance from the pads to the drums (are your drums still within specs?) If they are, like Joe H said, adjust the pads till they lock up the drums. Then back them off so you can just hear them drag when you turn the drum by hand.
If you are getting bubbles in the resevour (like you said), you are letting air out of the system. If you are having problems bleeding the system, just exercise some patience and tickle it like I mentioned above. If nothing else is working for you that is.
