Lately my jeep has had a lot if difficulty starting, it will crank and smell like gas the battery usually reads at about 10 amps could that have anything to do with it? Any help is appreciated

 

You may not have enough capacity to fire the ignition properly.

Have the battery load checked at a parts store.

 

amps....you mean Volts? If so (verify with a DVOM, the gauge is unreliable), than battery voltage is too low. Load test. If it passes, than start looking for the cause of your low voltage.

 

Thanks for your post.

We’re here to help but you must understand that all Jeeps are not the same.
In order for us to give you more accurate advice and help, we must know the following, along with detailed information as to the symptoms/problems etc:

Year
Model
Engine
Transmission
Transfer case

 

Year 1997
Model cherokee
Engine 4l i6
Transmission auto

 

If it was me.. I would have the battery charged/load tested at a parts store.. to verify that its good.. if bad.. replace...

Next question.. How long has it been since you had a tune up?

The smell of gas is indicating that you are not getting proper combustion when you are cranking your jeep...

I would do a good ignition tune up if it hasn't been performed in a while..

Spark plugs (champion or equivalent copper plugs) gapped at .035
Wires
Distributor Cap
Rotor
(I replace the ignition coil too... But im stupid OCD)

After a good tune up is performed.. if it still has problems.. we can help you diagnose further..

 

You did mention smelling fuel... you could have a possible fuel leak somewhere?

Doing a fuel pressure test would show if you had low fuel pressure... or a leak down in fuel pressure due to a leak.. a tune up is always a good idea.. cant hurt anything

 

I did a tune up around the end of august, ended up replacing the fuel pump about a week after tune up. How often should a tune up be performed? My brother was the previous Owner so I know he was not on too of maintenance at all.

 

Depends on driving type but a good tune-up should last you 20-30K's.

 

Factory recommended plugs, cap and rotor at 30K, and wires at 60K. We found it was best to do the wires at 30K since they would fail before 60K and we would look like asses.

 

might as well do wires.. they have to come off anyway!

 

Yup.

 

And that doesn't look good
I can vaguely recall something in the FSM about two different maintenance schedules related drive style. I always kept 50K (km's)intervalt in mind and was actually surprised plugs would last that long when I found out about the interval schedule...

 

For tuneup stuff it was the same.

For lube, oil, air filter it was cut in half as "severe duty" like a postal carrier etc.

 

Yep, that was it. (And the postal carrier being a RHD too