A2 Diesel Transmission for '91 A2 Gas Golf?

I'd look into linkage problems and/or shifter adjustment first before doing a transmission swap. Lots of difficult shifting can be solved that way first. There are also quite a few vendors that sell linkage rebuild kits for the Mk2 as well (all the bushings, etc.). My money says this is your problem and not a full-transmission issue.

If you really do need a transmission (but I doubt it), a diesel trans should work but the gearing would all be diesel-oriented. You can swap just the

5th gear in your own transmission though for lower cruising revs. It looks a little intimidating from what I've seen (a good 3-hour process and lots of parts to take apart but can be done w/the trans in the car) but if you're handy enough you can probably do it. Someone listed a how-to in the Golf/Jetta II forum at at some point...do a search on the forum archives there to find it.

Well I would look at.......... clutch cable (metal strands breaking and pedal feels loose) clutch release bearing arm inside of trans (not hard to change even with trans in car) release bearing and/or its pushrod clutch release plate

Something is causing the clutch not to fully release. It should not be a "linkage problem"nor a trans problem but you could those problems too! ;-)

What do you mean by sloppy clutch? Do first , third, forth, fifth , reverse seem to work if you stop the engine and put it into those gears too. Like you are doing with second. Sounds more like a clutch linkage problem than a transmission failure. Let us know.

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Self-adjusting MkII clutch cables are famous for sucking. So... why not replace the clutch cable first, and failing that, replace the shifter linkages, and failing that, then worry about replacing the transmission and/or clutch?