I did a complete brake job on the car. when I didnt open any part of the system, and when I was all done I could get the pedal to the floor while braking. Replacing the master cylinder was one of the last things I did, a couple people suggested it might be bad since everything else checked out. I looked for ways to adjust the ebrake but I couldn't find any.

 

Now I am going to have to look that up, but it won't be right this min. due to time. I'm gonna make a suggestion simply because is something I have had to do as cars have become more complex, I buy a car, I buy a manual of some kind. If you don't have one, try to find one, the instructions are in it.
But it seems to me that part of the procedure of replacing rear brakes on the Saturn was to rotate part of the Caliper assembly which was automatically rotated while driving the car to compensate for brake wear so the emergency brake actually worked and kept up with brake pad wear. I have the instructions, just not at my finger tips. And I won't get back to looking for them until this evening some time.
And I could be wrong. Seems like I had this same problem with my Fiero a long time ago and it has been more than a few years since I did the brakes on either one of them.

 

Ya know - post #4 indicates to me that you got a disk/drum setup on that car. That being the case, (and no insult to your mechanical ability), did ya remember to adjust the rear shoes ??

 

There is a procedure for rotating the piston if your rear brakes are indeed disc brakes which I assumed that they were, untill I;
1 Read Ocean Archers comment
2 Looked up the service informaion and discovered the car had either disc. or drum. I was not aware of drums as an option.
So Ocean Archers question is a valid question. "cause if the Rear brakes were not adjusted when installed, what you are describing sure would take place.

 

Yes I adjusted the rear shoes a couple times

 

SNIP
Yes I adjusted the rear shoes a couple times
SNIP
Humour me, if for no other reason than you are asking for help and there is a bunch of folks here knocking there brains out trying to help you. Something is illogical. Each of us have a different back ground. I have worked on drum brakes on cars as old as 1930 and as new as 2007. They are complicated as they have lots of bitty parts that need to go back together and adjusted as needed in order for them to work correctly. I don't know about you but I have made mistakes, I have seen mistakes, I have taken drum brakes apart and found that there was no way in heck that they could work due to errors in putting them together.
So do me a favor and describe step by step what is needed to put these brake parts back together and adjust them trying to think that I have never seen them and you are telling me how.
The point being, maybe you made a mistake and I and others are not there to see it. If so, maybe one of us can spot it.
If I had to guess right this min. and wanted to check I would look at the position and the action of the star wheel used to adjust and keep the brakes working. If it is not adjusted correctly than the shoes are too far away from the drum requiring too much pedal movement to make the brakes work.
K?

 

Whoa here -----

Are the backing plates on the drum version of the Saturns mirror images of each other? I don't know simply because all my Saturns have been disk brakes all way around. Point being, on some installations (and I don't know if Saturn brakes are like this), the star wheel turns one way on the right, and the other way on the left --- could the adjuster assemblies be swapped? If so, as you pumped the brakes, it would loosen the brakes, not tighten them .... just grabbing at a straw here

 

Wow I really don't feel like going through that whole process, I hate drum brakes but these were actually relatively easy. I went through them and made sure everything was done correctly. And the starwheel adjusters couldn't be swapped cuz I did one side at a time

 

Based on my experiance on taking drum brakes apart and find things assembled incorrectly, swapping them is not the only problem. All things considered at the present based on known information it sounds as if they are incorrectly assembled/adjusted assuming of course the symptom started with the completion of the brake rebuild, not after a period of time or before you started.

 

never did get an answer to "do the brakes stop the wheels from turning"