I have a 2000 supercab,5.4 2wd with 250,000. Occasionally and it seems more often lately,when i go to start the truck i get a grinding sound like gears not meshing. when i try to start it again its starts right up ,no grinding. Any thoughts?

 

Your starter drive(often called the starter bendix) is going bad. You can't purchase just the starter drive from Ford. If you wish to replace just the starter drive, and reuse the rest of the starter, I would check with the automotive jobbers. For the older starters(yes older than your 2000) the starter drives are inexpensive and easy to replace if you know what your doing. I haven't worked on a starter that new.