I have an '89 S-10 Blazer, 2WD, 4.3L V6 with 176k miles.

The starter problem I'm having is that it seems the starter motor is not engaging the engine and is spinning freely. It often takes a dozen tries before it actually catches and turns the engine. I have the feeling that this is a fairly simple repair.

The suspension problem is something else. It's been going on quite a while, and we've had folks try to deal with it. Basically, the car squeaks going over every minor bump. You can hear it hundreds of yards away. This is an annoyance. The big bad symptom is that it occasionally produces this clunk from the suspension. It doesn't really seem to have anything to do with hitting a bump. Sometimes a bump will elicit one, but sometimes seemingly nothing will. The latest report seemed more confident than the others, and the idea is that the a-arm ball joints are shot and need to be replaced. I'm afraid that my knowledge of suspensions is failingly small, so I have to take their word for it. In the past, the things they've tried have been done for free or next to it, so I don't feel like they're trying to pad their bill. I think they've just been somewhat stymied by it. It's recently gotten worse, so they probably had a better opportunity to find the problem this last time.