Looking into buying 81 Diesel

Hello. This is my first posting. I have some trival questions about the Golf so please forgive me. I've never owned even owned a VW.

I'm looking into purchasing a 1981 Golf Diesel. I live in the United States if there is a difference between European and US models. The guy want's $700 for it but I'm going to offer him $500 and if he won't take it I'm going to pass it up because I'm going to need a parts car to fix some things.

The body on this car is in better shape than I suspected. No major rust except for at the bottom of the windshield pillars. The interior is another story. Lots of interior parts are missing which bugs me since there is no excuse for missing interior bits.

The car hadn't been registered in awhile so I could not drive the car up and down the road without a number plate or insurance so I just "moved" it. The car seems to run OK but we had a hard time trying to get it to start due to a weak battery and a faulty glow plug relay.

The glow plug relay is bad so we had to run a jumper wire from the battery to the glow plug rail. I would assume this is a cheap part. Where is it located?

The clutch pedal feels like a clutch on a Korean car like a Hyundai or Kia. It's real soft but starts to get stiff about an inch from the floor and the car pulls OK without the clutch spinning for a second or two before the car starts moving. Is this normal for a Golf Mk1?

One of the rear doors won't open. The outside door handle is loose and I can't open it from the inside either. It feels like the mechanism is broken. Can I get into the door by removing the door panel or do I need to do something else.

Major issue is the alternator/AC bracket. The four bolts that hold this bracket to the waterpump are sheared off in the block. So I will need to fix that. The bracket is not in good shape either.

So this brings me to my real question. If I purchase a gasoline model for parts, how many mechanical parts are interchangable? Gearbox? axles? brakes? That A/C alternator bracket I'm talking about?

Most engine/machine shops should be able to drill out the sheared off bolts fairly easily. Or it takes a lot of patience and careful drilling if you wanted to do it yourself. You can get a tap kit to re-cut the threads in the block if they get damaged during drilling.

Not so sure about the mechanical parts though.Sorry!

Shortstuff said

Most engine/machine shops should be able to drill out the sheared off bolts fairly easily. Or it takes a lot of patience and careful drilling if you wanted to do it yourself. You can get a tap kit to re-cut the threads in the block if they get damaged during drilling.

Not so sure about the mechanical parts though.Sorry!

I was going to tackle the broken bolt issue myself. Luckily it's in a good position to get to with a drill. Glad it's not on the pulley side of the motor!

What I was mostly concerned about was the interchangability of mechanical parts between diesel and gasoline. Figuring there may be more gasoline models out there. But it seems there are more diesel VWs from that era. In the late 70s when gasoline went up, VW was one of the few companies that sold diesel passenger cars. Unless you wanted to step up to a Mercedes and if you had enough money to buy a MB you didn't have a problem buying petrol!

A friend of mine who lives in Sutton took me for a ride in his Vauxhall Astra diesel. I didn't even know it was a diesel until he really got on it and I could hear some slight chatter but nothing like the pickup trucks we have in this country.

As of right now I'd say 95% of passenger cars in this country (USA) run on gasoline. Most diesel powered vehicles are pickup trucks which get terrible mileage anyway even with diesel engines. Of course people buy them because they making 400 ft lbs of torque for towing.

I had been talking to a guy my father used to work with who is big into H2O Vws who has several parts cars. Mostly Jettas, mostly diesels and he said since I was his friend's son he would sell me what ever I needed.

I don't want to be bringing home anymore parts cars. I have enough Fiat 124 Spider, X 1/9 and Zastava Yugo parts to last me the rest of my life!

He told me the guy's asking price was way too high for the condition the car was in. So I may keep looking.

So this brings me to my real question. If I purchase a gasoline model for parts, how many mechanical parts are interchangable? Gearbox? axles? brakes? That A/C alternator bracket I'm talking about?

The only parts that will be of no use are engine related , all the running gear / interior etc will swop ok from a petrol model and may even give you some better parts as over here most diesel models were very basic .

The gearbox on the diesel may have slightly different ratios to cope with the lack of power     What a bout a Rabbit GTi  :dontknow: Must be some nice examples knocking about and your fuel over there is dead cheap !

Cheers……….

chudd said

[ Must be some nice examples knocking about and your fuel over there is dead cheap !

Cheers……….

Gasoline ain't cheap anymore! It's getting closer to what it was when I was in the UK back in 2000. Seems like I figured it was around $5.00 for a US gallon. Back then gas was around $1.20 a US gallon.

It's $3.10 for a US gallon of low octane which is 3.78 liters. That's just around here. Some places it's around $6.00 a gallon like California.

Just in the last two years gasoline has tripled here in the US. Has it went up that much since I was there?

Clearly there is allot of price gouging going on due to the recent hurricane but I blame Bush for the increase in petrol. When Clinton was in office gas was cheap but he didn't have anything to do with the oil companies.

Bush blames the increase on gas due to China and India using more of it but I know better.

All these hot rods that depend on the high octane stuff I've built over the years sounded like a good idea at the time but now I don't think it was such a good idea now.

http://users.chartertn.net/jseabolt/