I’ve gotten it to start after removing the starter and shimming it further from the flywheel but it still makes this awful grinding sound, any ideas?

 

Depends on the year of the 4.0l and the transmission, manual or automatic used different starters on some years

Also did the Block plate get put back in?
There is a thin metal plate between the engine and bellhousing, called a block plate or separator plate
This plate does two things, it shims starter motor and aligns it for flywheel or flex plate, they used different plates for manual and automatic

example of block plate here: https://www.therangerstation.com/Mag...anual/ts50.jpg

You can see the cut out for starter motor nose

 

It’s a 1994 4.0, I’m not sure about the trans though, the work was done before I bought it. I ended up dropping the transmission because someone told me if could be the throw out bearing but when I opened it up it look brand new. As for the plate you mentioned, it was crooked when I removed the trans so I re aligned it.