Hey guys, I have a 91 Firebird and was looking to upgrade the tail lights. I found 2 different styles in the classified section on this forum. I was wanting to know which would actually work on my car. Any modifications needed to wire up/install TA/GTA taillights? My 91 appears to have the smaller center section like th 89 TA/GTA lights have, but I would think the 91-92 TA/GTA lights should bolt right up.

1) Listed as "91-92 Trans Am / GTA tailights"


2) Listed as 1989 TA / GTA tail lights

 

Either should work with your existing harness. Pretty much an aesthetic choice, really. I speak from experience that the older 3 piece ones tend to delaminate the grid on the inside over time, and there is no repair or replacement option once they do. Either tail light setup does allow modification into all-stop lamps. Simply graft in combo brake lights in place of each red light location and wire in accordingly, And you get 3 red brake/turn lights on each side. This also lends well to sequential tail light setups.

 

Thanks so much for your help! I kind of liked the 2 piece taillights better, but was weary on if they would work since they are so much different then my stock 91 3 piece tails.

 

Basically comes down to how much you want to spend...I've sold good 1985-90 T/A taillights and gotten less than $30 for the set. Plan on spending $500+ for a nice set of 91-92 T/A taillights...even delaminated sets usually go for $200+.

 

Are the 91-92 tail lights as bad about delaminating? I still have my 85-90 set, but the black has turned half grey, and small stress cracks have developed in the clear outer pieces in the corners.

 

Yes, they delaminate just as bad, if not worse

 

Hmmm..now I am wondering if I should even bother now. I LOVE the way either set looks especially on a black Firebird like mine If they both fade and crack over time then it seems like it is just going to be a waste of money. The 91-92 TA/GTA 2 piece tails are NOT cheap either. My car is kept in a garage so that would certainly help, but it doesn't seem like anything can be done when they do "delaminate". Not like the surface of a lense that can be polished back to it's original luster.

 

I tried taking mine apart once, but they are factory glued between the outer lenses and the black grid. Trying to take this apart would most likely have destroyed both, so I stopped there. Best bet as far as long term appearance goes would probably be to use the base Firebird tail lights and just keep them highly polished. I know they aren't as visually striking as the GTA grid tail lights, but they are at least serviceable, and easier to replace.

 

That's what I'd recommend too. They are by far the best looking base model taillights for years that the T/A got different taillights. I personally can't stand the base taillights on the 79-81s, 82-85s, or 93-97s.

 

The 82-85's are prone to stress cracking and spider webbing as well from my observations. I've seen plenty in the junkyards that have faded and covered in cracks. They also seem to get brittle, like the early 3rd gen Camaro tail lights do (my '83 Z28 pair pretty much crumbled in my hands when I tried to clean them up, which is why I changed out for a pair of '91 gridded tail lights).
An added bonus with the '86 up Firebird tail lights is that I believe there is aftermarket support for them, such as Year One.

 

Either will work, provided you get the harness that goes with them. The base lights have 2 extra lights (turn signal socket and one middle park light), and the park light sockets aren't even close to being right for the 3rd light (3rd park light is, IIRC, an 1156, and the stock lights are 194s). Unlike posted above, you only get 2 brake/park/turn lamps. The third is just a parking light. Unfortunately, the earlier tails need to have the proper connector spliced into the harness, either on the body side or the tail side. They swapped the connectors sometime around 90. The connector you have is a round-ish one, and the older connector is flat with different terminals.

Then you need to remove the driver's side kick panel and locate the C208, and the blue wire in pin B. This gets cut and looped to pin A.

 

Hmmm you kind of lost me, but basically (from what I understand) an early (pre 1991) tail light harness is required to run any pre 1991 tail lights such as the Trans AM/GTA tails I posted above? Do the 91-92 Trans AM/GTA tail lights require any wiring modification to run on my 91?

 

With either of the tail sets, you need to get the harness that goes with them. With the early harness, you need to either get the matching body side connector OR a spare connector for your existing harness and splice it to the tail harness. The early and post-90 connectors DO NOT interchange.

Even if you do get the late model tails, you still need to remove the driver's side kick panel and modify the C208, or you won't have brake lights. Your existing brake light wire is blue. On the T/A harness, this blue wire gets looped, on the body side of the C208, from terminal B to terminal A. Terminal A carries the brake light signal to the turn signal switch. From there, the turn signal switch delivers the brake signal down the turn signal wires to the lights in the rear (NOT the high-mount lamp, separate circuit), and turns the brake lights on the respective side that the turn signals have been activated on OFF to allow the turn signal to function. Which is kind of weird, since if you have your 4-ways on and you step on the brake, the 4-ways will stop flashing and be on steady .

Oh, and you need to put a new flasher in the turn signal spot... Same flasher as is used for the 4-ways, a 552, I believe.

 

I have done the swap, I had stock firebird tailights and wen to the 2 piece Trans AM style of the 91-91, as mentioned in other replies a simple wire job is all I needed to do to accomodate them. I have the outside yellow turn signals working as they should along with the red stop and run lights. I did pickup a tail light harnness for down the road to swap out but no need for now. I love they way they look but yes they will set you back a $$$