Different length to parking brake levers

I have finally got my car (69 Cuda) sorted except for rear 11" brakes. I need them to be fully overhauled including drums ( I adapter Ford 11" drums to fit -cost of drums and freight from US would make you faint ) The problem is that the parking brake levers were missing when I got the car, I thought that it might be handy to have a parking brake so I went to local Valiant dealer and picked up a set (suite 69 8 3/4 slippery diff) went to install brakes but found that with lever in place cannot get top of shoes to come together, remove lever no problems. On the package it says: 'Parking brake strut lever 1965-79-all 11" brakes' As my car is a 'bitsa' maybe the diff/brakes are from a later model so my question is are the parking brake levers from later than 1970 shorter than 65-70 models? - I hope it is otherwise I might have to go back to using a brick as a parking brake (public holiday over here so I can't ring shop.):banghead:
Cheers,
Monaro.