Simple

I took a trip to canada... (6 hr drive) and noticed my clutch pedal play was starting to act up. I was at the border for an hour and a half with the car, in and out, in and out over and over inching towards the border.

symptoms:

Clutch engagment started creeping its way to the top of the pedal (IE clutch wouldnt engage until pedal almost fully released)... it steadily continued until i had to rev the motor up to 3k, and slowly let off until the clutch grabbed and engine studdered at the very top of the pedal.

Later that day, after being parked for a while, the problem went away.

The tranny has 176k. The clutch looked good when i swapped trannies to a differnt motor. I dont know if the clutch or throw out bearing has ever been replaced. The clutch lines are not leaking.

Today, it seems my pedal is very easy to push in and out, and i barely feel the clutch engaging at all... and all the while, the car is not hesitating to go in or come out of any gear, shifts smooth... just weird engagement points

Im thinking its my clutch master cylindar going out. Possible other causes are the clutch slave cylindar, or the throw out bearing... any other ideas?