Starter hitting the flexplate

Ok so I've been having this issue for a while and thought it was a broken flex plate. Put a new one in and it's still doing it. So I put in another transmission thinking it was something to do with that and it is still doing it. While idling you can hear it ticking as it hits the flex plate. While driving it is louder and faster. The tip of the starter shows wear from it hitting it. I never had this issue before and if I remember correctly it started after I had an issue with starter bolts coming loose. Starter is nice and tight and doesn't move around.
Any ideas on what could be causing this?

And it's a 93 4.0 aw4 231

Starter gear is ejected by the solenoid and is supposed to retract when the solenoid retracts. You could try replacing the solenoid and cleaning the starter motor, not hard to do

I'd be tempted to shim the starter out like 1/8 or 3/16, but then again it seems like something is wrong to cause this in the first place...

If I shim it out it would hit more. It's hitting the tip of the starter that goes inside the bell housing. The only thing I can come up with is grinding down the face of the starter to make it go farther in so it won't hit.