As Graham says, for front wheel drum brakes, the adjusters tighten in the same direction as that wheel rotates in forward motion.

Ref the long brake pedal, there are differences between Mk1 & 2 (1959 to '69), and later pedal boxes with various dimensional changes.  If the parts are mixed up, you can get a "long pedal" effect as the early pedal has the wrong length arm pushing on the m/cyl.

If you feel you have bled the system thoroughly and still need to pump up the pedal you will need to isolate where the problem is.

If the car has rubber brake hoses you can use a hose line clamp to block each corner in turn until you see which one(s) improve the pedal.

A very coming mistake is to adjust all four front brake adjusters clockwise as you do the rears.

The right front two adjusters turn counterclockwise and it is critical that you use up ever tiny bit of adjustment on all four if you hope to get a decent pedal.

After changing out my rear subframe I had problems bleeding the rear brakes.  After a  thread suggestion of jacking the rear of the car up as high as possible, finally success!  I now need to replace the brake light switch I broke while trying to pump the braKes on level ground!

problems with bleeding drum brakes seems to be quite common, you have to be persistent.  

If they pump up with a few pumps you more than likely have an air lock or you have adjusted them incorrectly.To bleed the brakes you need the rear of the car as high as you can get it. You may have to bleed the master first then the next junction (maybe on the compensating valve) and so on down the line until you get to the bleed nipple. Don't have your helper stomp on the pedal it will cause the valve to cut off the supplu of fluid to the cylinders slow firm motion is best.

I have a 1977 mini clubman and I cannot get a good brake pedal. It goes almost all the way to the floor when I press the brake. This is my first mini. It had been sitting for a long time, and it already had this problem when I bought the car. It has front and rear drum brakes. There is only one brake line coming out of the master cylinder. I replaced the master cylinder because it was leaking. I did bench bleed the new master cylinder before I installed it on the car. the right rear wheel cylinder was stuck, so I replaced both rear wheel cylinders, rear shoes and springs. I inspected the front brakes to make sure none of the wheel cylinders were stuck or leaking. I adjusted front and rear brakes and bled all wheel cylinders. A few odd things I noticed are that the bleeders on the rear wheel cylinders are on the bottom of the wheel cylinder and the wheel cylinder only fits the backing plate on way, so they are not installed incorrectly. How do you get the air out of the rear cylinders when bleeding? won't the air just stay stuck in the top of the wheel cylinder as the fluid comes out the bottom? Also, when bleeding the brakes, if I have someone press the brake pedal down, then I open the rear bleeders, I don't get any fluid, but if I open the rear bleeders first, then have someone press the brake, I get fluid flow. Any suggestions?