Hi Mika:
I thought I'd share my experience as this problem has consumed many hours of my time.
Yes spurious noise in the photoresistor RPY 58 is the problem.
In a previous post I suggested flipping the sensor around. This may work. I also sourced and purchased new old stock RPY 58 and tried a few without success. There may be high variability in the noise parameters of this device.
B&O Tech builletin from June 20th 1975 (Issue No. BG6/75) offers the solution. (found at back of service manual on for this series on this site).
B&O suggests 2N5779 photo darlington replacement. This component is obsolete. And it does not cross reference to any other modern equivalent that I can find.
As a modern substitute, we can use Vishay BPW77NB. This has very close parameters, but different physical packaging.
B&O also specifies a new housing for the transistor. This is also obsolete. Fortunately a new housing is not necssary. Simply reuse the existing one. With a hot utility blade, carefully cut/melt off the back old plastic casing so that BPW77NB can fit inside.You will need the slotted housing in order for reliable discrmination of the bands on the ruler.
Clip off the base lead and bend and solder emitter and collector leads to solder pads. Use pliers to align position of sensor to the light slot from the lamp on the other side of the ruler.
The rest of the fix is per the bulletin.
Works :)
Derek