One problem related to ignition coils failure has been reported for the 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Started out to go to work @ 6 am travelled with no issues to the kids sitter's house and then continued on to work on double lane highway speed limit 60 mph. The Jeep started sputter, jerk and eventually died, didn't realize it had died so pulled off to side of road, turn the Jeep back on it kept sputtering, jerking and died again. Finally, it backfired 3 to 4 times and stayed started. Check engine light came on went and had the code read it stated it was the ignition coil and catalyst system. So we changed th ignition coil and catalytic converter, along with the muffler do to the fact the backfiring blew a hole plum through the muffler. Still same problems. Have had several near miss of crashs, and bodily injury. Now it doesn't want to start and you sit on the side of the road like I did for 2 hours before it wanted to start up.