Hello,
I have a 1996 XJ Cherokee 4.0L
I know there are many, many threads on this already and believe me I read them all, maybe close to 100 all told. I was a technician by trade so know how to fault find well but just wanted to share my experience with this relatively common fault.....
Our jeep was running perfect but just shutting down every now and again, while driving, after stopping it would start right up again then would not stop for a number of days then do it again. Eventually it just stopped all together (in our driveway luckly).
First thing I did was replace the coil, it was obviously cracked and my experience with other vehicles is that these fail commonly but it did not fix the fault, next (and this is important) I swapped the ASD relay with another relay in the fuse box, both the relays had similar ratings (i should know I work as an electrical technician) and that did not fix the fault (remember this point).
Now i fell into a trap I never should have so wanted to share it with the masses. Due to working long hours like 65+ a week I was having to trouble shoot with bear minimal time and doing so in the dark, i read many many threads on this common fault and literally every one said it would be the crank shaft position sensor so, stuipidly, I went ahead and ordered one from ebay and due to living in New Zealand this cost be $200+ dollars including freight. I fitted this sensor (easy really dont know what all the fuss is about) and my jeep still diddnt start. im scratching my head and in my haste read some more threads and everyone says it must be the camshaft positioner, so again an expensive purchase from ebay, fitted and and the jeep did not start.
I was getting frustrated now as i had spent over $500NZD all up and was thinking I was getting nowhere. The key trick for the codes just will not work in my jeep and I ordered a bluetooth OBD device that turned out to be a fizzer.....
At this stage I realise I have a wife and very young child that need a vehicle and ours has been off the road for 4 weeks now so I give in and get a local auto technician to take it away and have a look at it, im sick of trying to sort this issue out late at night after a 12 hour shift in the dark.
So, I get a call today and remember the relays I changed way back first, well it turns out the auto electricians found that 2 of them were not working and as luck would have it they were the two i had swapped around, they replaced all 5 for me for $90 and returned my jeep all fixed at a total cost of $270 Now the moral of the story is to take a breath, think about the problem, dont rush in based on what other threads or emails say, take note of them but DO NOT treat them as gospel, first thing I will do in the future is turn ignition on and check for volts on the coil, this would immediatly have pointed me to the ASD relay and I could have gone from there.
Hopfully this can help someone else in the future and hopfully I will not have the CPS or camshaft position sensor problems now that I have replaced them.....

 

Glad to hear you got it sorted out! This is the biggest downfalls of forums in my opinion.