95 escort lx problem

ok here is the problem i have. At first my car would not start, it would just click a few times and not even crank.. then i got a friend to help me out.. we got it started by putting a screw driver on the electrical engine ground to bypass it. this worked about 10 times, and it still does work, but now when i turn the car on via the screw driver and it is on for more then 5 minutes anything that is electric in the car just dies all of a sudden. It is obviously something wrong with the engine ground, or whatever it is called.. it is located about a foot beneath the brake fluid, it has 2 metal pieces connected with a bolt and some wiring coming out from it.

I would say it's got to be a ground problem. Have you tried replacing the battery cables and/or checking your battery posts? I had a similar problem with mine, only to find out after replacing the battery, that it was just a faulty cable.