Sounds like the circuit is trying to pull the crystal farther than it will oscillate properly. The crystal might be marginal, the varactor might be flaky or there may be a wrong part in the circuit. The other possiblity is that the waveform of the oscillator is such that the counter circuit may be counting every other cycle (one peak high the next low etc.) and /or the voltage may be low. Low voltage could be caused by a marginal xtal. You need to check with an oscilloscope and and an external counter.
You might try slowly lowering the BFO frequency and see if there is a point at which the oscillator goes nuts. My bet is that you need a new crystal.
Luck Allen
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