Oregon Auto Spring (OAS) is a LS dealer/installer. They do a ton of E450 LS conversions for an ambulance builder, and had just finished a front+rear install on an F53 coach before doing mine. No idea why my install was so shoddy. For all I know it could have been a mechanic who was pissed at the boss and was out to cause problems?
Some of the problems with the install by OAS in the order discovered by me:
- Rear anti-sway bar end link nut loose with more than an inch of threads showing.
- ABS sensor wiring (and several other wires) left dangling with factory provided hold-downs not attached.
- Differential breather tube left dangling.
- Stand-offs for rear brake lines left dangling (unsupported rigid brake lines are prone to work hardening and eventual failure)
- Brake reservoir extremely low on fluid (reservoir was full when delivered to OAS - I had recently done a fluid flush).
- After seeing all the other untightened/unsecured items I decided to do a spot check of bolt torque before heading out of town. I started with the bolts for the heavy brackets that attach the rear axle trailing arms to the frame. Of the 6 bolts I checked, 1 was only finger tight, 4 were way below torque spec, and 1 was at (or beyond?) spec. At this point I drove back to OAS and had them go end-to-end with a torque wrench and paint pen to make witness marks as they checked every bolt.
- When I removed the wheel covers to retorque the lug nuts after the first couple hours of driving I discovered a lug nut that was at the end of its stud.
LS hadn't designed the brackets necessary to fit all the tanks in the more limited frame rail length on a shorter chassis like mine; LS gets all the blame for the delays, frustrations, and extra work for OAS caused by this. But that doesn't excuse OAS for any of the problems listed above. Fortunately I am mechanically inclined and inspected things before anything catastrophic had a chance to happen.
I am disappointed that LS didn't have all their ducks in a row and did some of their R&D on my and OAS's time. But, the system performs so well that I'm glad I had it installed and I'll never own another F53 based coach without it.
