Sure seems like you ought to talk to VDO or the guys at egauges.com.
I hope you didn't go to all the trouble of doing an immaculate retrofit
installation before you knew that it could work.

it sounds to me like it's an electronic speedometer perhaps and not a
mechanicals cable driven one.
Never heard of any speedo that needed an 'hall affect sender' input
myself.............but.....

Hall effect TYPE ..........yes, perhaps. .
there is a Hall Effect device on your vanagon - in the speedometer,
which is related to engine rpm, nothing to do with road speed of the
vehicle..

for general info about electronic speedometers - many
cars...............say 740 volvo's starting in the
mid-80's...........went to an electronic speedometer from a mechanical
cable system. The electronics system has no moving parts, is cheaper,
lighter etc.

As engine management systems got more sophisticated ( As  I put 90 and
later Subaru engines in Vanagons, I could write  pages and pages on how
near pathetically crude an 83 to 91 Vanagon Fuel injection / engine
management system is compared to a 1990 and up   Subaru Legacy EJ22 and
other , later more advanced subaru engins after that. )

what I am leading up to telling you.........is that those cars and
engines use a VSS - Vehicle Speed Signal...............
and..............how convenient, if they have an electronically driven
speedometer from a device that's transmission driven and thus reflects
real engine speed..................with that signal they car run at
least 3 things  - the speedo, use it for Cruise Control speed input, and
provide a Vehicle Speed Signal to the engine management system.

if you haven't figured it out yet - perhaps a call to VDO or egauages.com
good luck !
scott
www.turbovans.com

Mark Thoma wrote:
> Hey everyone,
> Putting an aftermarket VDO speedo in my van and it requires a "Hall Effect Sender" input.  What the???? The van is an '87 with the two part speedo cable that joins at a box.  Ideas?
> Mark
> p.s. thanks in advance.
>
>
>