I would say that was a good deal, if all is above board.

It has been said already that the clutch, or at least the throw out
bearing, will have to be replaced at some point. How soon? Depends.

Keep an ear on the throw out bearing sound. Like any Vanagon owner,
you will learn what the various sounds are, which sounds are problems,
and when they sound worse. I'm NOT saying that you should wait for the
bearing to fail (NO!! :^) just keep an ear on it and get the
time/money together to remove the tranny and have a look. At that
point do it. Don't wait.

Best money you could spend right now is on a Bentley manual, and a set
of metric sockets and combo wrenches. If you're not already familiar
with fixing vehicles, you will be if you want to save money!

All the best,

Neil.

--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia -
"Jaco"  (Bustorius)

http://web.mac.com/tubaneil

Please send fav Vanagon/Westfalia links to me at:
musomuso1963@hotmail.com

On 9/9/07, Kai Mei <kai@newclear.us> wrote:
> Ok I asked a ton of questions and appreciated all the feedback.
>
> I went ahead and bid on a van unseen and unexamined, The seller
> reassured me that he had no problems running @ 70-75 MPH on level
> hwy, and the van wasn't leaking. He also offered to have it driven to
> me for a fee, so he at least thinks it's running ok.
>
> My intention is on Driving it back to new york city, to replace our
> daily driver Volvo wagon.
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1987-Volkswagen-
> Vanagon_W0QQitemZ300145926623QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item300145926623
>
> Just thought I'd share it with the list.
>
>
> Also... I can't afford any major repair expenses, so if this thing
> turns out to be not great, is it almost worth $800 for someone who
> want to part it out?
>
> Kai, who's $1000 ebay volvo has run amazing with only a fuel relay
> (typical) and oil and tranny fluid (both leak) for about 16 months.
> Too bad it would cost way more than $1k to do the rear main seal.. :(
>