Hahaha... well, while what you saw might not have been so for this reason,
"twisting the belt" as you described was in fact the answer to the "Case of
the German Fan Belt" puzzler on NPR's Car Talk a few seasons ago...

http://cartalk.cars.com/Radio/Puzzler/Transcripts/200013/answer.html

...FWIW  :)

Doug Fitz-Randolph
Freeport, ME