For the last couple weeks here, my 1992 240 wagon has been starting progressively harder in the cold mornings up here in Mid-Minnesota. The last couple days have been the worse, taking up to five minutes of cranking (on and off) to get it to fire up. At first it will just crank, then it will begin to sputter for a while, until finally it will (reluctantly) fire up. But after that start in the morning, it fires up immediately the rest of the day. The battery was recently checked out fine. My problem sounds similar to GirlfriendsMechanic's further down the forum, but since it runs fine after starting up, I thought it may be different. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Sam