He who is Tekkie+AK4- said on Mon, 13 Nov 2017 16:13:08 -0500:

When the pedal gets too high on any vehicle
with a non-adjustable (aka "self adjusting") hydraulic linkage, it's
clutch time - pure and simple.

+- oooh maybe 150 and gaining

The original problem (spongy feel) is solved but that just highlighed the
new problem, which is the engagement being very late in the cycle of the
non-adjustable clutch, merely means that, eventually, it won't engage, I
guess.

Given that, I'll be looking at clutch kits to buy (clutch disc, pressure
plate, pilot & throwout bearings, & aligner tool), where my first searches
seem to pull up a heck of a lot of brand discussion and pound discussion.

I guess my first question is about foot pounds.

The stock clutch is an Aisin brand 900 foot pounds clutch which the
aftermarket seems to frown upon (although they say get OEM parts a lot
too).
http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/aisin-seco-clutch-kits.html

The Marlin Crawler clutch is 1200 foot pounds, where I'm not sure what that
means in terms of better or worse.

Other brands are Duralast, Luk, Exedy, & XTR at prices for the entire kit
of from $50 to $300 for the same parts, from Amazon, Ebay, Autozone, Marlin
Crawler, etc.

Any advice where to aim, mainly at the foot pounds first, since that's a
spec?