The latest in my Volvo saga...

I'm driving home from work last night, when suddenly all of my warning lights come on, and my alternator gauge drops to nearly nothing. I pop the hood and discover that my alternator belt is gone / vanished, disintergrated somewhere on the road. No problem, I have a good enough battery to get me home, and belts are pretty cheap. I install a new belt, (and cut off the A/C belt, as it was in the way and I didn't have much time left in the day to figure out how to loosen and pivot the compressor. Besides, the A/C hasn't worked in 2 years anyhow...)

I put the battery on a charge overnight, start the car this morning to go to work, and now the engine is running rough. It feels like it's only running on three cylinders. I pop the hood again, and hear a distinct "ticking" sound coming from somewhere in the engine compartment. I checked all of the spark plug wires, thinking I may have bumped one of them loose, but everything is tight. All I did was change a sticking little belt !! And the car ran fine the whole way home the previous night, even without the alternator.

Any guesses???????????