I have an 8112A pulse generator, which is from the same family. I bought it from eBay cheaply and have had no operational problems. My main complaint is that it has a pretty loud fan and lots of wind noise, so much so that it's a relief when I turn it off. (Knowing its importance and fearing that the noise was a sign of impending doom, I replaced the fan with a new one from Agilient--cost me almost as much as the unit, and this made only a marginal improvement.) My other complaint is that the box is very deep, which means that it hogs more space on my bench than I'd like. You should check the dimensions of the 8116A to see if it will fit in the spot you have in mind. Finally, even in spec, it doesn't offer a very high resolution of control or much accuracy of setting. There are plenty of signal generators out there that don't have the pulse generator capabilities that give you more resolution.
Inside, I found grey goo that had leaked from an unknown spot and ran across traces and dribbled inside. It was easy to clean up with alcohol and did no harm. I did some research and found out that the grey goo was melted insulator bumper plastic. The bumpers were stuck on the circuit board, probably to keep it from touching a shield board that is right under it.