I currently own a 99 v6 camaro that broke down about 5 months ago. I've been letting it sit because I don't have the funds to get it fixed. Since then I've been driving my grandpa's 85 el camino.

Since I got the car I've had nothing but issues with the electrical system. Within two months of having the car the ground from the negative terminal to the frame of the car shorted out and almost caught on fire. So I disconnected the cable completely. After that I didn't have any problems. Two months later the battery which was new when I switch to the el camino went bad. I took it in and got it exchanged for a new one. Now less than a month later I'm having the same exact problem. The battery doesn't have enough juice to turn over the engine. The weirdest part about all of this is when I disconnect the ground cable from the batter terminal the belts on the car began to squeak very loudly everywhere I drove. But when I tested to see if the alternator was bad by disconnecting the negative terminal while the car was running the squeaking stopped. I'm pretty sure the alternator is good because the car kept running once the negative cable was disconnected. I've never in my life heard of something like that and I am absolutely lost as to what could be keeping my battery from charging and causing my belts to squeak.

The belt squeaking part was annoying but I could deal with it as long as the car was working. But know the car's not working and I'm out of options. I'm thinking about going and buying a battery charger and charging it every night so that I can get around for the day. Any ideas as to what I can do to fix this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Step one when dealing with electrical problems is try to put everything back to the original, factory configuration. If there are any aftermarket items added (amps, alarms, neon lights, etc) disconnect them and see where you are (actually disconnect them, don't just pull the fuses).

Once everything is back to factory, then reconnect items one at a time until you find the one that causes your electrical problem to reappear.

You should double check all of your grounds and reconnect the one that you took off. That one being disconnected is probably causing most of your current trouble.

Also, it is generally a bad idea to disconnect a modern alternator when the vehicle is running. They are internally rectified and regulated and a sudden, large change in the load on them can cause them to fail. Just because the engine didn't die when you disconnected the battery does not mean that you didn't damage the alternator.

 

Yeah, what Grandpa said. You should have cleaned the negative cable and tightened it up instead of disconnecting it. Sounds like your belt may be slipping on the pulleys.