Well I am messing about on a breadboard and with what looks like "transmission central" even using an external clock the timer chip does some funny stuff so I'm wondering if my instability is due to the mess of wiring or the part not being suitable. The chip will oscillate with the crystal but it was unstable, the lower frequency sections are also unstable though and I'm guessing that the higher in frequency I go the more unstable it becomes more quickly, that's all.
I can try wirig it up nice on some vero board to try and eliminate the long wires being a problem. Yes I could do with a diagram suited for a 32.768 KHz crystal and someone previously described one.