I just rolled on a new chain for my 300sd. I was real careful about feeding the chain into the motor and pulling it out the other side. When the new chain was rolled on I was a link short! AHHH! I didnt take off the chain tensioner in the first place, so I pulled it off and was able to pick up the slack to make the chain move an extra tooth to line it up properly.

Will this mess something up?

How do I check to see if everything is still lined up properly?

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You're fine..that is what the tentioner does..takes up the slack of a stretched chain..now that you have a shorter chain,the tentioner had to be removed to allow proper placement of the new chain..just check to be sure that the 0 mark on the crankshaft and the cam mark on the cam tower all line up together..it will be real apparent if it doesn't.

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1978 300SD 303400 miles
1983 300D 341270 miles
1980 300SD 320456 miles

I just went through this one myself! Like this:There is a trick that took me forever to figure out from the FSM, which has really complicated instructions. If timing isn't known or chain has been diconnected or it just slipped and you have to restart, first set crank at "0" and Camshaft marks lined up properly with matchmark on cam tower. Then rotate engine for a full turn until you begin to build up compression. This will tell you if you have everything lined up properly! Make another full turn by hand with the Number 1 glow plug removed. Feel for compression as you turn the motor, then stop at 25* BTDC when you feel compression building. Air will be trying to get out the glow plug hole if your on a compression stroke, if this is not happening, go for one more rotation. Now set that IP up with both marks lined up on the front of the pump. You can only see this with the IP out of the car. Now install the pump WITHOUT turning the engine to "0"! You want the engine to be in the "start of delivery" when you put the pump back on! Start of delivery is 25* BTDC, not "0"!

It will start and setting timing is fairly straight forward from here on out, just slight tilting to the engine to advance timing or away from it to retard timing to set correctly at either 24* or 26* which ever is your setting.

ditto

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