OK I just completed this mod today for my friend's 1995 Camaro and found it is not too hard to do. Things you will need to do the swap as I did.

Tail lights from a 98-2002.
Tail light harness from a 98-2002 Doner car (this unplugs inside the car and must be fished through a gromet in the body.)
A couple of red butt connectors (I used 2)
a piece of wire about 7 feet long same guage as the tail light wires
a connector that matches the type in the body side of the plug. This can be aquired from the doner car's body side plug on the tail lights.

Now remove old tail lights and set aside.

Remove rear header pannel. (2 10mm nuts near the tail lights hold this in)

Unplug the tail light harness and push the wires through the body and remove the old harness from the car.

Unplug the lisence plate plug and remove the old wires.

Install the new wires in reverse of the old ones.

Reinstall the header pannel, and check the bulbs, replace as needed. The bulbs for the 98-02 are 3157 and 168s

You can if you want install the tail lights now. There is no more wiring work needed in this area of the car.

Now here is the tricky part of the mod. This is where you will have to do some wiring modifications. The mods are simple, and require the ability to cut, strip and crimp the butt connectors.

Check out this Schematic of the tail lights. I drew out both the 93-97 and the 98-02. They look almost the same but if you notice the blue (light blue actually) wire comming off the brake light switch goes into the turn signal switch on the 93-97 but it does not on the 98-02. This is the only difference under the dash and the wire must be cut in order for the tail lights to work properly. There are 2 light blue wires on the turn signal plug you need to cut the one that is on the outer edge. (it will be next to the yellow and green wires. I will post a pic later it is too dark right now to get a good shot)



Now that you have cut that wire wrap it up to keep it from shorting on anything, black electrical tape works just fine here.

you now need to remove the left trunk trim, rear seats (including the back) and the left inner qtr trim.

Once you get the qtr trim off you will have access to the wiring you need to tap into. Find the light blue wire in the harness heading up to the top of the car. See image below



Cut the light blue wire and tap into it with a butt connector and the 7 foot wire listed above. It should look kinda like what I did above. (I prefer to use the butt connectors over the suitcase wire tapps. The wire tapps can break the strands of the wire when you crimp them down and you can cause a wire to break in the future. The butt connectors do not have that same issue if you use the proper size)

feed the new wire into the black sheeth if you want if not just lay it out of the way.

If you were able to aquire the plug off the doner car then you need to disassemble the plug (female end with the male pins) and pull out one of the male pins. To do this remove the black plastic retainer clip then using a paper clip or small screwdriver push the retainer tab down on the pin. Make sure not to push too hard so you can move it back into locking position for returning into the car's plug. Any color will work here but the blue is the correct one.

Measure the new wire to the wire for the plug and give yourself about an extra inch. Use a butt connector to join these 2 wires.

Remove the black wire retainer from the female plug on the car but DO NOT remove any of the wires.

Line the new wire up like the others and slide it in the open slot that lines up with the blue wire on the taillight side of the plug.

Push the retainer back into place and plug the tail light harness back together.



sry this one is blurry


Test all your lights and if everything works then reassmeble your car and there you go.

Feel free to add this post to the list of links in the How-to Sticky and I will try to get the other images as soon as I can.

Massey

 

Very informative, but man you really went about it the hard way. I did the same tail light upgrade on my old 96. The difference between the two light housings is the tab openings where the sockets go into. All I did was trim (with a utility knife) the notched openings on the new housings, and maybe one tab on a socket, so that the old sockets would drop into the holes. Done!

 

I thought about going that route but I like the push in bulbs better. The whole job took me less than an hour not counting the studying of the schematics of both generations of car.

Massey

 

I even bought a newer harness off flebay "just in case" but didn't use it. Anybody need one? I sometimes miss that car too...

 

damn i think i need my glasses... wait i dont wear glasses maybe i need to go to the eye doc

if i had a 98-02 i would want the 93-97 tail lights i think they look way better no amber and the reverse light blends with the line of the hatch/trunk so much better

 

you still got the harness? im about to convert my 95 lights over to the 98 style

 

can we see pictures of the before taillights and the after taillights?

 

+1, amber signals are ugly on most cars...

I'm also going to replace the front signals with clear lenses because orange blinkers look out of place on a car with red/white lights.

 

We didnt take any of the before... They were some nasty ricer cheapy crap. The chrome inside was yellowing and the sun had about bleached the red lenses into some strange pinkish orange. It was gross. The new lights look just like 97-02 lights, you can see that on any red 97-02 out there.

Massey

 

Yes I do, but you don't need it. I'll still be happy to sell it to you though.