[joesplace62]

Yesterday, on my commute to work I heard a clunk from the right rear of the car as I decellerated to a stop light Shortly after that as I accelerated down the road, I heard another clunk. Very similar to the noise wire wheels with worn splined hubs make. Don't know if these events are related to my real issue. As I went home last night, the car was running fine and I didn't hear any noises like the ones I heard in the morning. However, as I pulled into my driveway, the car made a LOUD thump and jumped out of gear with a bunch of noise (grinding and thumping). Thought maybe I didn't get it completely into first gear. Put it back into first and let the clutch out gingerly, boom, same thing. At this point I'm thinking broken axle. I left the car idleing and pushed down the driveway towards the garage. After pushing it 30 feet or so while still idleing, the engine does one quick rev up and then settles back down to idle. Now I'm thinking somethings messing with the throttle linkage.
I get under the car and look at the axles, look OK, so I open the engine compartment and check out the throttle linkage. It looks OK too, then I notice back against the fire wall on th drivers side of the car, there is a 1/2" wide cogged belt sticking up through the sheet metal against the fire wall right next to where the throttle linkage comes thru the fire wall. The belt has about a ten inch long loop in the engine bay and I wasn't able to remove it from its location.
I started the car again and tried putting it into gear. It jumped out of gear as before on the first attempt, then behaved normally on the second. As I was carefully idling it into the garage, the engine with no warning, zoomed up to redline on me. I shut it off instantly and tried restarting it again. Idled just fine til I started moving forward again and it revved again. I shut it down and put it on jack stands to get a better look. Couldn't see any sign of the other end of that belt from under the car. Also couldn't see anything fouling the accel. linkage or shifter assembly.
Is this belt some road trash I picked up or is there a belt on my '72 2.4 T motor that I know nothing about?

Any ideas would be much appreciated. Marty