I know that alternator and power steering driving belts on most cars are reinforced by steel aramid or kevlar cables inside the rubber. Even a large nick in the ribbing would be of little importance as far as belt integrity and reliability are concerned.
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| Many bus and coach engines are like this Detroit Diesel |
It would take a magician to reach inside the locked engine compartment and cut the drive belt. The fan would need to be removed before you could get a cutting tool on the belt and even then cutting the belt would be next to impossible. In the above picture the fan blocks access to the belt but when the engine is installed in an engine compartment there is also a radiator that would further block access to the belt.
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| Radiator and fan need to be removed to reach the alternator belt on this Cummins diesel. |
Loosening the fuel or oil filter would have been easier than cutting an impossible to cut drive belt. Cutting a radiator hose would be easy.
Alternators for bus engines are very powerful and robust. They require a very robust drive belt.
There are sketchy reports on propaganda sites claiming that a Romney some Democrats cut the alternator drive belt on Romney's tour bus. This claim is bogus in many accounts. Even if it were possible to cut the belt let alone if it were on the engine there is no proof that an Democrat did it. There are a hell of a lot of Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich and Santorum supporters who would like to cut Romney's lying throat let alone an alternator belt. If someone wanted to vandalize his bus it would have been much simpler just puncturing the tires or pouring water in the fuel tank or clipping some wires.
If there was a problem with the belt it probably just broke due to a problem with the pulley system.
The liars at the Romney campaign are lying.
Here are the lies.... http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/07/09/alternator-belt-cut-on-romney-bus/#comment-368677
The Romney team today confirmed grass-roots reports that a campaign bus was sabotaged by an unknown vandal over the weekend.
The bus, which was being used for campaign events but not
transporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was parked
in Richmond, Va., when the vehicle was tampered with late Saturday night
or early Sunday morning.
A Romney campaign official told PJM that the alternator belt was cut.
Repairs were under way Monday to get the bus back on the road for a
voter registration event in Springfield, Va., from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at
the Springfield Metro Commuter Lot.
A “Moms for Mitt” mobile phone bank that had been scheduled for 11:30
a.m. this morning in Leesburg, Va., had to be canceled because of the
disabled bus.
The official said other reports that the bus’ tires had been slashed were incorrect.
No police report was filed on the incident and there were no suspects.
