Thanks for the replies.

After examining the old part, I noticed that it had a year stamp of '98 on it and it too had the star and merc part number ground off. It was cracked up pretty badly. So, it had obviously been replaced before.

I went ahead and put the new one in with the wording facing the rear of the car. So far, no problems.

Roncallo: Yes it's quite obvious that the star and merc part number were ground off on the new part. I see this all the time on parts that I buy online. I think they have to do it for legal reasons, since they are not being sold through the Mercedes dealership.

One more thing, I did do the online translation thing first. Since the second word was abbreviated, the best I could come up with was "this side joint", which didn't really help, since it wasn't clear to me which joint they were talking about... On the drive shaft or transmission?

__________________
2000 c280 Sport (looks like an upgrade, feels like a downgrade)
1991 190e 2.3 (sold)