Stepdown Heater Differences

hudsonguy
hudsonguy Senior Contributor
edited November -1 in HUDSON
I'm wondering if the only difference between the early stepdown heater (48-50?), and the later models (51 and up) is the location of the controls. I'm pretty sure the heater core, defroster ducts, heater valve, etc. didn't change. I may be wrong though.

I'm helping a friend restore a '51 Super Six that never had a heater installed, and I'm wondering if an earlier model heater would work. Obviously the controls would be down on the heater rather than up on the dash.

Anyone know if this would work?

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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    To answer your question ,would earlier stepdown heater cores work in a later model stepdown the answer is yes they would. The early 48 stepdowns used up the thicker heater cores of the 46-7 vintage and then went to a slightly thinner heater core from that point until the end of stepdown production. The controls on the bottom of the blower /fan box had a short cable going to the Ranco valve and a lever on the bottom of the box. The color of the boxes at this time was a greyish brown. Starting in 1951 the blower boxes were black with controls on the left hand side of the lower dash panel. A longer bowden control cable was used for the Ranco valve as well as the fan control now being on the dash. An exception to this was the 51 Pacemaker . Early units were using up the leftover 48-50 model blower boxes later units had the dash control units. The Ranco valves will all interchange 48-54 although they are not all nessarily the same model Ranco. All heater ducts and are the same 48-54. Hope this helps.
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