Master cylinder brake pushrod length?

[Bullet306]

Since I assembled my MKII almost 10 years ago, I've been running a manual brake setup consisting of a new parts store replacement (raybestos) 84 Mustang manual brake master cylinder, 87-93 donor pedal box, and OEM brake pushrod removed from a donor power brake booster. Braking performance has been adequate, but I always felt that the brake pedal effort was too high, and the pedal travel was not enough to get full stopping power. (This is compared to other manual brake vehicles I have owned/driven in the past.) Additionally, with this setup the pushrod was on a significant angle as it entered the master cylinder.

In hopes of correcting these problems, I acquired a modified donor brake pedal designed to replicate the OEM 4 cyl manual brake pedal assembly. I mounted this pedal in the lower set of holes in the donor pedal box, and while the pushrod is now lined up straighter, it appears to be too short. The rear of the pedal pad on new brake pedal now has to be 2" or less from the front of the footbox so the pushrod can reach but now it cannot go deep enough into the master cylinder. Next I tried the longer pushrod from the 84 Mustang master and it is about 1" too long.

Not sure how to proceed at this point? It is there a different length pushrod from another application I should be using, or is something else amiss in my combo?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.