sputtle

Seems silly, but crawl under there and see if there is something mashed up in the linkage. Also, make sure there isn't any rust impeding the movement from the lever. This happened to me once.. When I was 13, I took the old farm truck mudding in our neighbor's field and got stuck. Dad was pretty pissed, so was the neighbor. I got stuck because it wouldn't go into 4x4. I mashed so much mud up into it, the lever wouldn't fully move. If that's not it, sounds like a transfer case problem.

Nice pics. Seems to be the way to do this. Definitely something I'll keep in mind. How did the battle with rusty bolts on the bed go? These usually are never touched after the truck is built. Just curious. I'm from Minnesota, so every car I work on requires WD-40 Haha And did changing the pump solve the problem?

Yep, I think that's your problem. Electric motors slow down a bit in cold weather and can cause tough starts.

60+ is needed for a strong and reliable engine. I'm surprised it's even running at 52, because the injectors are designed to shut down at around 55. But you're on the right track. Throw a new pump in there and I doubt you'll have any more issues.