need help with rabbit

OK, heres the problem. My girlsfriends best friend owns an early 80's VW rabbit. The car is a total peice of junk that shouldnt even be on the roads, but unfortunately its her only car so she needs it. It broke tonight, and of course my girlfriend immediately said i'd fix it. oh joy for me. Ok heres the problem, first off when she tried to start her car the battery was dead, so she got a jump and took off. Well, a little ways down the road the car died when she shifted it into third (its a 5 speed). So, she got it tarted again, i guess it started hard, and died when she shifted to third again. So she got it started once again and drove it to a parking lot in second gear, where it died again and never restarted. So i talked to her, and i guess the first gear in the car doesnt work at all, and the reverse will work for a few seconds then the car refuses to move. Its been like that since shes owned it. Whether this is related or not i dunno. My guess on what was wrong was either a vacuum leak, or possibly some wiring grounded itself out somewhere. I havent actually seen the car yet because its almost 1 a.m. here and i got called a few minutes ago. So, if anyone knows anything about VW rabbits and could give me any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Im kinda going into this blind, since i havent seen the car, or worked on one of these before. So if anyone can help out it'd be greatly appreciated. Thnx.

Your alternator is bad. Replace it. If the battery keeps dieing and isn't holding a charge or charging then your alternator is dead or your charging unit is dead which is part of the alternator. They are about $80 90 amp alts. good luck