For anyone that has a burned out rear wiper motor-
        I happened to get a golf front wiper motor delivered to me when
ordering a rear wiper motor to replace the burned out one that currently
sits in my hatch. After a little investigation, it appears this motor will
do the trick beautifully after a little soldering and it appears to be a
much better built motor. The Bentley for the Golf also shows
rear wiper motors that have identical components (but not pin numbering)
to the vanagon motor, so one might want to look into those as well...

        As for the front motor, it looks like a 87 - 89 golf comes
the closest. One would need to only run a jumper wire between pin 31b and
whichever of the two main power pins you wish to use (53 for lower speed,
53b for high speed). Then just wire the other pins using the same pin numbers
as on the current motor. An 86 golf wiper motor will require a diode in
line with the jumper wire as pin 31b goes to ground in the open position
in these. I couldn't decipher the pin numbers on the Bentley diagram
for the 85...

dave