1995 Jeep Cherokee shuts off when off road or hits bumps

[alyssafroe]

Hello,
I recently purchased a jeep cherokee. Its a 1995. It ran fine when i bought it then ten minutes down the road, it stalled out and wouldnt turn back on. We pushed it into a gas station to see if it was out of gas but that didnt work. Then my boyfriend tapped the fuel filter and it started up for a few minutes then shut back down. Luckily, a shop across the street had a spare filter and we used that one temporarily to get it home. Then, a few days later we decided to test it in the woods and it just shuts off in the middle of the woods. This past weekend, we put the new filter on and cleaned the fuel system, but today after class it started to stall out again. This happens everytime i hit a bump or go on a dirt road. Anyone know what it might be? My boyfriend thinks I need a new gas tank because its rusted inside, but we aren't sure. Any suggestions would help! Thank you!

 

[FloridaCherokee1988]

My Jeep had similar problems, turned out to be my crank sensor, or crankshaft position sensor if u wanna be technical lol see the crank sensor is a small magnetic sensor that reads little bumps on the crankshaft as the engine spins to tell your computer where the crankshaft is at to adjust timing and such. If your Grand Cherokee is the same as my XJ then your crank sensor sets right on top of the transmission bellhousing and when you go offroad the bumps and vibrations cause the failing crank sensor to move around and lose track of those little bumps, throwing the engine all outta wack lol I could be wrong but thats what it sounds like to me.