My 96 cherokee just started overheating...
Was perfectly fine when I drove it 15 miles this morning. I went to start it after it cooling down for a few hours, and she started as she normally does, but there was a noise - I cant really describe it
5 minutes later while I was at a red light she stalled. Looked down at the temp and was at 270-280. Drove another minute until I could pull into a parking lot.
Checked the oil and it needs to be topped off but looks good and should be fine.
Theres also plenty of coolant in the reservoir as i topped that off a few weeks ago.

After letting it sit for almost an hour she started up, was still a little hot but I was 5 minutes out from my brothers house and figured I could make it, and leave her there to cool down.

Stalled again after driving maybe 200ft... and started making a clicking noise (if i can figure out how to add a video of that i will) - but a rotating clicking noise.

I already know i'm gonna have to change all the oil. but any idea on the noise - or why its over heating? im assuming the water pump may be dead, which i can go run out and grab one and slap it in later today. but ugh.

Edit : pulled the water pump out - was cracked down along one of the bolts. pulled it out and there was close to no coolant in the engine block - maybe a cup or so... never seen a vehicle with no coolant before 😅 hopefully theres no real damage. when i took the water pump off looked like the crack was new - not sure how as i haven't done anything to my car besides an oil and o2 sensor change - but you could see where all the coolant had dumped out at some point yesterday and soaked under.

also looks like a rat or something got into my overflow hose - so it couldn't even pull reserve coolant if it wanted to.