I kept looking up on the LDs chips, on the Tek groups and here with
a thread on the 8558. It uses the same duo for the AD converter of its frequency display it seems, with a very similar failure as it was stuck on "+1".?
At this point i'll probably blindly replace the pair as they seem to have a high failure rate with time. They seem particularly vunerable to overload, i'll check the power.
I still don't totally understand how the digital section work but I don't think I need to for now.?