99 Jeep Cherokee Sport Hard To Start In Cold.

..."pumping" the accelerator pedal added fuel to the engine on fuel injected vehicles. The Enrichment System on your vehicle is not working while in the "START" mode. This is the equivalent to the choke and/or accelerator pump on a carbureted engine. And frankly, I don't know the whole process of fuel enrichment, either for starting or accelerating, on a fuel injected engine. If it were my car, I'd take it to the dealer as they have all the test gear for the proper operation of fuel injection.

I would try to let it warm up when it starts or take it to the dealer and tell them the problem

OK, This may not be the cure for this problem every time but, this is what fixed my Problem. Are you ready? It's pretty complicated! I changed the Battery. I know it's simple, I saw this as a possibility on another furum. Tried charging it but it was still slow turning over. So when I switched out the battery it started right up and stayed running on it's own. No gas pedal, no warming up, no having to drive a couple hundred feet. I know it sounds crazy but I guess you need a certain amount of juice. So if you have this problem try another battery even if it's out of another car just to test before you spend the money. I love when I figure it out myself, I'm pretty stuborn and hate to think of paying someone else to do what I can do for free.

sounds like you have a bad iac (intake air control). it is a rather common problem on the 4.0 but comes with a little cost. its right on the throttle body and can be changed rather easily. try this, to find out if thats the problem instead of pumping the gas before trying to start it just put your foot on the throttle to just barely open the throttle plate and then start the car. if that works the iac is probably your problem.