diesel wiring (how?) into gas car

[larrybuck]

Hi everyone!  This is my 1st post ever here!    I'll try to keep story short.   Used to have '82 Quantum wagon, 1.6TD. Loved it, went 9,200 mi. trip all over USA in 2 weeks. mpg 52-57 mostly.   Had uncontrolled cold idle later on, heard rods knocking...added fix $ in mind, sold car...SAD!!!      2 years later found a '84 wagon, dead gas Audi w 5spd. same color (silver) as 1st one for $200.00  Been in storage jacked up for nearly 5 years now.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Presently:  I bought an '82 Audi 4000D w 5spd. as a donor car.  It had a swapped '81 1.6D non turbo from a rabbit in it.
  I've had a young man do the swap for me.   He had to do some fab work, and part of the Audi suspension came along...some BOLTED in nicely.   It runs and drives nicely, but he can't figure out HOW TO FINISH THE WIRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  He's very smart, and pooled ideas w friends of his..but coming to dead end.
  I know about it being called the Passat elsewhere, Santana..... even have heard over the internet??   that tons of these are common in China?
  Are there any good sources for a new wiring harness???   The Audi has not been destroyed yet,(young man works at metal recycling..I've saved front seats..tires, wheels.

The Quantum has a factory (gas car )  tach. How would THAT hook up?

Presently, I am still keeping him busy removing the factory roof rack, welding shut forever the sunroof, and repainting the roof as needed to match.....I don't like rain leaks or aero drags!!!!

Thanks for your  patience.....could use some advice!!!   Wagon had black interior, is Wolfsburg edition, very straight, clean, and rustfree, has anti theft sliding cargo shield.

[Syncroincity]

You really can't buy much new except wear items anymore for cars this old. Wiring a diesel is not difficult, 4 or 5 connections at the most. Do you have access to wiring diagrams? You need to find a Bentley repair manual for the car, will have all the wiring laid out.

Tachometer will not work as-is. Options are either 1. Find a VW Diesel tach and transplant it or 2. Modify a gasser tach to accept the diesel input, which is a tap off of one of the windings of the alternator. There's a good write-up here on the modification, http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php/topic,3741.msg335109.html#msg335109

What issues is he having with the wiring? We need details, and pictures if possible. There's a lot of talent here, these guys can get you through this. If he's having problems figuring out the glow-plug relay, that can be simplified to a manual push button for the time being. You need some fairly heavy wiring for the plugs themselves,

 To post pictures, you have to store the picture files on an outside website, like photobucket.com or thesamba.com, then when you make a post here, copy the address of the picture, and click the photo button, right below the B bold button in the menu above the smiley faces. Then paste the picture address when the img word pops up on the post.

I just wrapped up a 1.9TD diesel swap into a gasser Vanagon Syncro, the wiring was by far the easiest thing. I put a diesel tach into mine, and soldered a wire onto one the the alternator winding ends for the signal. I used an adjustable electronic timer relay to activate a big power relay that lights up the glow plugs.

[vanbcguy]

Re: the tach, there is also the Dakota Digital signal converter.  It will read the alternator 'W' terminal output that's normally used to drive the tach on VW diesels and spit out a signal that the gasser tach will understand.  Just another option...

[bajacalal]

There really isn't much in the way of electrical systems on these engines, literally you can count the wires on one hand that will make this thing run. You need to power the starter solenoid and starter + (shouldn't be different than gas), you need switched 12+ (hot in run AND start) volts to the fuel on/off solenoid on the injection pump (the same wire that went to your old ignition coil + should work) and you need to cycle the glow plugs when the engine is cold. See the write up I did on using the Volvo glow plug relay, but the VW works exactly the same, the relay wiring is the same, but the type of connector is different and there is a "slow" and "fast" relay which must match the type of glow plug used (slow is now obsolete). http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php/topic,35363.msg334401.html You could temporarily use a push button switch to power the glow plugs, the relay just makes it automatic. The wiring for the other functions like the water temperature, cooling fan and oil pressure are the same as the gas engine and the tachometer issue has been covered.