Dropped Timing Chain down the Hole

[PlaneNuts]

ARRGH! After winding in a new timing chain on my '97 C280, 104.941 motor, I managed to loose the intake end down the hole. I could still see the chain piled up down there, so I fished for it with a piece of wire and was working it back out when it slipped off the wire and disappeared all together. I had no choice but to wind it out the exhaust side.

Now, how to get the new chain back around the crank sprocket??? I taped a small fridge magnet to a piece of fiberglass packing tape and dangled it down the hole until it stuck to the crank sprocket and then cranked it around to where I could see it on the other side and fished it out. Attached a piece of wire to the tape and pulled it back through to the opposite side and then attached the chain to the wire and wound it back through.

I patted myself on the back too soon.

I got the head back on and torqued down today and began setting up the cams and crank. But there was no way I could get the exhaust sprocket on. The chain was too short!! But it was the same 126 links as the original.

I looked at the MB WIS picture and I think I might have threaded the chain around a lower guide pin rather than between the pin and the crank sprocket. Check the attached. Look at the inset, the suspect pin is just to the right of the crank sprocket. Adding to my suspicion is that the chain sometimes suddenly slides over the crank sprocket when applying tension to the chain.

Anybody have experience with this?