Like others have posted here in the past.....
Shut the 99 XJ off at the station to fill gas tank. Then, crankity, crankity, but will not fire and run. So....

Had it towed home to diagnose. I can here the fuel pump at the fuel filler and there is gasoline at the rail, at the little schrader valve. I can see a whiteish/blueish spark from the coil wire and from spark plug wire(s.) After cranking a couple times, I can smell fuel and every now & then the engine schug-schugs very faintly as I let go of the key, but not really trying to run. There is no Check Engine Light and my discount OBD-II scanner shows no stored codes, only a pending transmission code that the truck has had for the 2-1/2 years we've had it.

I've seen threads with similar symptoms that needed a crankshaft position sensor, some needed a cam sensor (in the distributor) and some said a new ignition coil solved their problem. So, I wonder, can the crankshaft position sensor be faulty without giving a CEL code? Can the coil be bad enough to not start & run, but still give a spark with the ol' screwdriver test?

Any and all suggestions and/or information will be taken under consideration and much joyfulness will be awarded for a correct solution.

 

Bad cps will not throw a code. You have to check it with a multimeter.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/testing-cps-5563/