So, I bought an 1988 Cherokee a few weeks back and the final portion of getting it all legit is my smog. Took it down today and failed. 2 of the 3 reasons are a quick fix, they don't like my rigged up air filter so I failed "Thermostatic Air Cleaner" and "Vacuum Lines to Sensors/Switches" due to "tampering". One man's tampering is another man's fixing. Anyway, that's the easy part. I also failed the "Fuel Evaporative Controls Functional" section. The guy said that he could smell it coming from the fill up nozzle area, so to check there first. I crawled under there and don't see anything out of the ordinary, but in all fairness, I have no idea what I'm looking at. I'm thinking swap the fuel filter (I was planning to do so anyways as it's still OEM at 144k miles), and then maybe replace all the lines? Is there an easy way to check for leaks from the fuel tank? Anyone else have this problem?

The evap system catches fuel vapors and sends them through the intake to be burned. I believe there are two canisters. Your charcoal can is under the hood and I think there's like an expansion tank in the back in drivers side. There are hoses running between them. The system has to be air tight.

Did you fail, "Fuel Evaporative Controls Functional", because the guy smelled gas???? If so, fix the other stuff. Go back for a retest, with a full tank, after a 20 minute drive. stop and vent the tank, open cap, a block before the shop.
You probably have a broken or missing hose between the tank and the charchol cansiter.

This is a lot different than most people's failed examples. You must have a great running Jeep!

Thanks, yeah it runs pretty well for being old enough to buy beer. Yes, from what I could tell he said I failed that because he smelled gas and suggested I check for rotten hoses, etc. I did notice that are two tubes running to the fuel tank, one is the fill up tube, and I'm guessing the other, smaller one is some sort of vent? That one did not have a hose clamp and looked a bit loose. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be just that simple. I saw instructions for a build your own fuel pressurization rig on here, but I'm not sure I want to go that route quite yet. Thanks for the tips, this forum is amazingly helpful!

i never should have thrown all that crap away never thought of selling to a state that still inspects

If he smelled it near the fuel filler area maybe your fuel cap isn't holding a good seal, if so replace it for a super easy fix.

The smaller one should be evap

There are two main hoses on the filler neck, one is the filler and the other is the filler vent tube.

Should it have a hose clamp? Here is a link to a picture, not sure how to post pics on this thing. https://i.imgur.com/IOnVH.jpg I would have thought that the vent line would have a hose clamp for sealing purposes. I don't see any cracks in either of the hoses.

Mine has one plus if unsure clamps are cheap.

Yeah, at 4 bucks for a set of hose clamps, I threw one on there. I think I found the problem though. When I put the hose clamp on there, I found that the one for the filler tube was barely on there. I tightened both of them down, changed the fuel filter, and got a new gas cap, just to be safe. I'm taking it back down tomorrow and will follow 93gc40's advice and vent it right before I get there. I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow. Thanks for all the tips!

Glad to hear and good luck!

Just wanted to thank you all, I passed! Now I need to put my intake back in when I get home. It still irks me that I passed all the emissions aspects of the test, but failed due to an aftermarket intake and loose gas hose... Oh well, at least we have nice weather here.