To begin with you need to check the breathers at the top of the
transmission. There is one for the final drive and the ATF section. They
often get buried under enough dirt and crud they cannot be seen. These will
explain both the fluid pumping up from the dipstick tube and being forced
past the torque converter seal.

Next is the fluid level. If there is too much fluid the rotating parts will
churn it up aerating and overheating. Between the marks, warm, engine
running, and vehicle level!
Next is the fluid filter. If it is plugged the excess vacuum will cause the
fluid to boil and foam up.
Then there could be an internal leak or problem causing excess fluid pumping
mixing foaming etc.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Cecil Eastman
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 2:48 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Foamy auto transmission fluid

Hi folks,

It looks like I've got some sort of leak in the auto transmission of our
'85.  The fluid is foamy which leads me to believe that somehow air is
getting into the tranny.  Is this possible?  Also, when the engine is off I
see that it pukes tranny fluid from the top of the filler tube, as if it's
boiling over.

Last thing I did to the transmission was replace the seal at the flywheel
end about 6 weeks ago; that's the highest point that I can think of where
something would have changed.  I really, really don't want to hear that I
screwed something up, but I need the truth no matter how much it hurts.

Does any of this make sense?

Cecil
The Old Ludwig Van