I've had four Jeep vehicles from that era. I'm not a big Jeep fan by any means, it just seemed that they fell into my lap over a period of a few years and I picked all of them up for a song. My first Jeep was a '96 Cherokee. 4.0/5 speed. I put a lot of miles on it, was fun to drive and got me out of a lot of jams. (I live in a rural area not close to a highway, accessible by gravel roads. Winters here can be "entertaining") My second Jeep was also a '96 Cherokee 4.0/automatic, purchased with a cracked head. The owner said he never overheated it, it's got the 0630 head (not known for cracking), but it did anyway. I replaced the head and ran it for a few years. My third Jeep was a '98 Grand Cherokee. The interesting feature on this Jeep was that it was a "Canada-only vehicle. Not to be sold outside of Canada" said the underhood tag, or something similar. The gauges were metric and the engine block had a factory plug-in heating element for cold weather. My fourth Jeep is a '99 Cherokee.
Speaking of the reputation of the Cherokees running hot, they do. If you look at a RockAuto representative photo of a '96 Jeep Cherokee radiator, you will see that they are rectangular, not square. So they have two cooling fans, one mechanical and the other electric. My first two Cherokees ran hot, but I put on a BTR radiator on Jeep #1 and it made a world of difference. Sadly, BTR no longer in existence.
BTR radiator
My first '96 is kind of an odd duck that can make the parts man pull his (her?) hair out. It's got hodge-podge assortment of parts that Chrysler just threw together that year.
My next '96 Cherokee blew a hole through the engine block while simply driving down the road. I retired it.
The '98 Grand Cherokee was sold to an auto dealer in Texas. I didn't shed a tear.
The '99 Cherokee that I picked up for scrap needs a different engine or it needs to be scrapped. We'll see on that one. Again, the previous owner sold it because it put a hole in the side of the block as he was doing 10 mph on a hotel parking lot. The 4.0 engine has two reputations FOR CERTAIN YEARS. One, it will throw a rod or break a piston skirt. Two, the 331 cylinder heads have a reputation for cracking.
As far as the "carry a spare crankshaft position sensor" comment, yea, please do. The Jeep forums also scream that you should only buy your replacement from Jeep. Perhaps so, but the last one I purchased from Jeep was made in China, so...whatever. It's made to Jeep's specs, right?
Have fun with your Jeep.