Help, the jeep just shuts down

For the past couple of days my Jeep will just shut off while I'm driving down the road. It's doesn't sputter, buck, cut in and out or of that, it just shuts off. After about 10 to 15 minutes I can start it back up and drive away, sometimes if I get lucky it will start right away but not often. I checked the fuel rail and there is plenty of fuel there. I was told that it could be a crank sensor. Any ideas, or thoughts? The jeep is a 2001 cherokee with the 4.0

when it wouldnt restart, you checked for fuel while cranking, but did you check for a good snapping spark?

it seems like its heat related and the cps can sometimes test good but when hot it can fail. so yes, iwould test for spark, and if no spark it could be the cps.

but coils are also heat sensitive. yours has coil packs so i would assume that they dont all go bad at once.

have you had the codes read?

Had the same issues. It was the crank position sensor. Its on the drives top of the tranny. The wires on mine were melted and exposed. It thats it get a bunch of extensions and go at it from the tcase side. Not a big deal.

Probably crank position sensor. One guy posted that he could pour cold water on it to make it work again until it heated up. It's probably the only part that should be replaced without extensive testing, especially with an intermittant condition. A spare certainly cant hurt anyway, if the old one ends up being good. It is worth it to plug and unplug the connection to make sure the contact hasn't tarnished up.
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=979567&highlight=stalls+warm

Thanks for the help guys. I will be trying the CPS in the next couple of days.

just for reinforcement.. i had same exact problems with my '01 5spd and a new cps was the cure. now i carry a spare (got a deal on it)

Same problem on my 89.CPS was the answer, it went as far as dying, me being jumpy i replaced the fuel pump assuming that was the problem, in the parking lot of the 7-11 it died in, took a few hours to come to that conclusion and repair, drove fine for another day, same problem occurred, i now have a spare used fuel pump that i didnt need, and carry a spare cps!!
also note, ive seen this problem on a friends xj where the fuel pump had spun in its keeper, just enough to pull the hot lead off.

Well the shop replaced the CPS in the jeep and it's been running for 1 1/2 hours without shutting down, thanks again for the help!!