You don't do it from either end.
You do it from the middle.
First you undo the front end under the front floor.
Then undo the engine end.
Then unbolt the plastic cable holder bracket right under the middle of the
van.
Then you pull the forward portion out, towards the middle.
Then you fish the rear section out from around the trans etc.
Reverse to install. 

One thing I've noticed that makes harder mentally for people to do a job on
a vanagon is not having it jacked up so you can get under it properly.
If it was nicely raised up some, and you crawled around under there and
really followed the cable, you'd probably notice this bracket in the middle
of the van.  Twp  10mm  wrenches are needed there. 
A nice trick in the front is to cut a slit in the throttle cable bell crank
plastic cover,( at the very front of the van )  where it fits over the
cable, so you can do a full job of adjusting the cable from the front end,
and then last step, put the cover on.

Lube the bell crank area really well in front, and the pedal pivot. 
A wonderful embellishment is to first blow out the white plastic tube in the
forward half of the van with compressed air, and as you feed in the new
cable, spray wd-40 or a nice synthetic spray grease lube into it as you feed
the cable in. 

Lastly, check that it gets full throttle at the throttle plate on the
engine. Engine off of course. 
Scott
www.turbovans.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Don Spence
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 7:10 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Throttle cable replacement- from which end?

I guess I should have been more explicit with my question. From which
end do you feed the cable in. Foot-well or engine compartment?
83.5 1.9 wbx manual trans.

  TIA
Don