I bought this car about a month ago and its my 2nd third gen camaro. all of a sudden it started making this squeal/screech that I can't eliminate. I checked to make sure the water pump pulley was seated correctly with no wobble. the alternator makes no noise when hooked up to a tester and the power steering pump is perfectly fine. it sounds like its coming from the water pump area so that's where I checked first. next, due to some help from searching the forums on here, I took each belt off individually and found that when the alternator belt is off, there is no squeal but... its not the alternator. none of the belts show signs of slipping.
I have no smog pump and no a/c compressor (yet) and my belts are routed as such: belt around ps, water pump and crank. and the other, around just the water pump and alternator.

I was thinking that it might be that because the belts are routed differently that it is putting pressure in the wrong spot.

Any help would be well appreciated.

 

Testing the alternator on the bench may not be side-loading the bearings the same way it does on a running engine with the belts in place. If the squeal goes away with removal of the alternator belt, it's probably the alternator bearings (or the belt is glazed). Also check to make sure the alterntor pulley is "in plane" with the rest of the belt grooves it's belt uses, and check for any cracked/broken supporting bracketry to it.