I find that hard to believe. How are you supposed to adjust them when you put the new ones on? Maybe I just haven’t seen enough drum brakes.
85 Tercel, 96 Prizm, 92 Tracker, 98 Ranger. Cars/trucks I’ve owned that had rear drums and all had an adjuster hole on the back side of the brake. What kind of car are you working on?
Edit: Ok, this one got me curious, so I looked in your profile and saw it was on 03 Focus. I found this surfing around google groups:
…Also, the preferred method for removing the brake drum is to remove the four bolts on the inside of the backing plate. Then the drum and spindle will pull off in one piece. You won’t disturb the hub nut, nor will you expose the bearings to dirt and debris. This is the method recommended the Ford shop manual.
Also, that big ass spindle nut you took off needs to be torqued to 180 ft/lbs when you put it back on.