I'm working with a 2001 WJ Laredo, I bought a replacement 4.0 liter from the salvage yard that came out of a 2004 WJ. After going through the swap and starting it, the starter is not disengaging from the flex plate and the two gears are grinding really badly when the engine runs. As I found out, there are two different starters for the applications, one for the 2001 and one for the 2004 the differences being the solenoids and the starter drive gear length. Right now I have a starter for a 2001 installed and I transferred the flexplate from the original engine over to the replacement engine, I also have the starter shimmed right now in an attempt to separate the gears after cranking. If any one has run into this compatibility issue before or has any ideas on how to rectify this, I would really appreciate it

 

did you change your flex plate and the plate behind it my 95gc 4.0 had a bad knock and got used motor with 140k miles on it and swapped it and had to pull it back out cause the flex plate and the plate behind it was different adn wouldnt line up to my torque converter ok u changed the flex plate my bad for not readin lol but did u take the plate thats behind the flexplate with it?