Lions8150

My check engine light came on a few days ago. And my car was having trouble starting, sometimes taking a few minutes to start. It would turn over, but I would have to give it some gas, it would shoot just above 2k and idle there for a second or two then go back to normal and drive fine. Some days it would start right up with no problem. I took it to autozone and the diagnostic test said temp sensor, I talked to a guy at a shop and he agreed. I purchased the sensor from autozone (duralast). Yesterday i installed it. I started by unplugging the line to the sensor, removed it, teflon taped the new one and installed it. I then filled the antifreeze. Turns out that the plug on it was egg shaped and needed to be square. I removed the new one and took it back to autozone. They said that was the right one for the 96 cherokee sport that i have (four door 4x4 4.0l). The only square one that had was a 98 (watts). It looked the same and plugged in perfect. I removed the old one again and installed this the same. The car took a second to start, but worked. I let it run for about twenty minutes to let the new coolant circulate. I pulled the jeep out of the garage and turned it off and tried to restart. It would not start for about a half hour. Today it started right up, but the check engine light was still on. About halfway through the day, the light went off. Did i possibly install wrong, miss a step or have the wrong sensor, or does it take a day for the car to get use to the new sensor?