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KITT and KARR Replica Guide: First, if you live outside the United States and your country requires that you add separate amber turn signals to make your 1982-85 Firebird street legal, then
Knights of England makes a neat conversion kit which does this without ruining the lines of your car or your taillight assemblies.
WARNINGS: Please
remember that you are dealing with an electrical system. It is strongly advised that you disconnect the battery before beginning these steps. Although the taillight electrical system is only 12 volts, a good car battery can deliver enough amperage to melt a screwdriver and kill a person. If you modify any wiring, make sure you use wires that have comparable gauge (thickness) to the originals. Always fasten wires so that the connecting ends conduct electricity well, and secure each
connection so that bare wires cannot short onto the frame or other neighboring wires. Failure to do so may result in blown fuses, damaged electronics, and possibly fire. Finally, I take no responsibility for anything in anyway that happens to you or your car if you follow these directions.
Removing the Taillights
Unscrew the wing nuts for the left and right tail light assemblies. These wing nuts are designed to be screwed and unscrewed by hand, so they should come off fairly easily. There will be five of them for both the right and left sides, for a total of ten wing nuts.
Repeat this procedure for the right taillight assembly. When you remove the right assembly, be careful to catch the filler (the middle section of the taillight assembly), because by then, nothing will be holding it on.
Wiring the Older Taillights
Before 1986, the brake lights in Firebirds served dual roles: as both brake and turn signal indicators. Here is an example of the 4-wire 1982-85 taillight harness:
Here is an example of the separated stop and turn indicators found on the 5-wire 1986-92 taillight harness:
Note that if you ignore the extra running lights (and they are not on all 1986-92
harnesses either), both harnesses essentially use four large bulb sockets. Unfortunately, you cannot just cut off the extra running lights and plug the newer sockets into the older assemblies. For one thing, the turn indictor bulb sockets are designed so that they will not fit into the holes on the older assemblies. Secondly, if you did this, your running lights would be a lot dimmer. There are two basic options to choose from in solving this problem: 1. Use a Taillight Converter
A taillight converter can convert the newer 5-wire (brake light separated) into the older 4-wire (brake light and turn indicators integrated). These converters are normally used for use in connecting older trailers to newer cars. Here is an example of how a taillight converter can be wired to convert the 5-wire (actually 6, if you count the ground) signal coming from the car into the 4-wire signal required by the older 1982-85 taillight wire harness and by most trailers:
Because trailers usually have smaller bulbs, not all taillight converters will work. I tried several taillight converters and wasn't very satisfied with any of them. Most of the cheaper (under $30) do not supply enough current to light the taillights correctly. The higher amperage (and more expensive) taillight converter I did get to work got too hot after a short period of time, and so I didn't use it (I'm afraid it might cause a fire). Also, my car's flasher relay expected to be driving one bulb instead of two bulbs (plus the electronics in the converter), so the turn indicators flashed too quickly and took too long to start up. Finally, the break lights were too dim when the running lights were on. I expect that if you got an isolated (like relay based), high amperage turn indicator, and messed with different types of flashers, you could get this working correctly and make the taillights completely authentic to a 1982 Trans Am. If anyone does this, let me know what parts you used, and I'll post the information in this guide. However, I decided that I had already spent too much money and time messing around with this. I also realized that there is a good reason behind separating the break lights from the turn indicators: safety. 2. Modify a 1982 Taillight Wiring Harness When I pulled my 1982 taillights from a salvage yard car, I also pulled the 1982 taillight wire harness. By making a few minor modifications, I was able to make it function with the newer 5-wire signal and make it almost authentic to the 1982 look. With this method, my taillights appear exactly the same as those on KITT and KARR, except when I use the turn signals... but how many people will notice that? Here is the original 4-wire 1982-85 taillight harness (again):
Here are the modifications I made to the harness: What I did was I:
Now, my running lights, brake lights, and reverse lights look just like KITT. Only when I turn can anyone tell a difference, but as compensation, my turn signals are easier to read when I'm applying the break.
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Remove the trim cover for the spare tire. This involves removing plastic screws from the front and back of the cover.
Next, remove the large plastic trim screws from the rear trim panel.
There are also other screws holding this rear trim panel on. Here the hatch locking mechanism has two black screws holding the trim on.
Now you should be able to pull the rear trim away from the back of the cargo area. You may need to unplug some accessories, like the cargo light, before you can pull it completely away.
You should be able to see the large
plastic wing nuts on the inside wall behind the taillights. They look like big dials for an old fashioned radio.
Carefully pull off the left tail light assembly. You may want to lay a towel down first if you don't want to scratch the paint on your bumper.
Unhook the bulb holders, which can
also be done by hand. Push the tab on the holder while you turn it (there should be directions written on the back of the holders).
