With the 8566B main issues fixed, I carried out extensive tests, also switching it on and off many times, running it for a while. So far so good. With all the tests, discovered only one issue, unstable display for spans above 5 MHz.

The instability is difficult to see on the picture, it is a bit random, and at slow sweep, the trace becomes very wobbly and noisy. Jumps around. The common suspects are the A19, A20, and maybe A21 assemblies, these control the YTO. There are various capacitors on these boards that may fail or leak. Or some dead bits on the DAC, or similar. A bit strange that it works so well below 5 MHz span – isn’t it? Not really, because the 8566B has a different mode of operation, depending on the sweep width. Below 5 MHz, the LO stays locked all the time, above, it is only locked at the start of the sweep, and then the YTO is swept just be increasing the tuning coil current in a linear (and linearized) fashion.

After considerable study, probing, checking capacitors, including desoldering some – no success. Some more checks, solder joints fixed, finally, so occasional improvement. Touching the assemblies A19, A20, some response.
From that, suspected a contact issue with the board edge connectors, and indeed, these were not very clean. So I gave them a thorough treatment with polishing cloth, rubber erasor, alcohol. Reseated the boards, A19 and A20.

Finally, the sweep is very stable. Seems a lot of unnecessary concerns about capacitors and such, but well, finally, fixed. Screen shows a reference (stored) trace with slightly below 5 MHz, and a longer time max-hold display, slighly above 5 MHz span. Clearly, not much noise and instability. All looking good.