i think you are talking about the grease seal cap being dented...just cosmetic, wouldn't worry about it. first rule of drum brakes is, you shouldn't apply the brakes with the drums off, the wheel cylinders don't like that and they can fail shortly after. mis-adjustment would be my first guess, but since you say the pushrods coming out of the wheel cylinders are doing funky things...i'd pick a set of them up and replace. look at the brake shoes carefully...any fluid on them will cause them to expand and tighten up causing a pull as well.