Long story short, I was installing a cam at my friend's garage. (He has a heated garage, I don't and the outside temp. is below zero) He leaned on the cam gear and SNAP.:8 The chain guide snapped and pieces fell down the timing chain cover. Great in vehicle engine disassembly. I hate it because I don't like all the crap that gets in to the engine despite a persons best efforts, plus I just rebuilt it 45,000 miles ago.
Upon engine reassembly I noticed that the chain has no "bright links" or marks of any kind to align with the gears. I don't remember what it was like when I assembled it during the rebuild.
What do I do? Put the marks at 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock? Count the number of links and gear teeth and divide knowing that the cam spins half as fast? Have someone look at their chain and tell me how many links apart the bright spots are apart? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Excactly like you said, the notch on the lower gear should point downwards and the upper at 12 o?clock or a bit before like 11.30 Turn the engine over by hand a couple of revolutions to make sure everything works fine.
Make sure to clean out all debreis from the oil pan or it could block the oil pump pickup.

I found an image online. There are exactly 25 links between the bright links on both sides.

>>>*The chain has 96 links on the 85-95. The figure of 25 cannot be correct.

Set the engine on TDC number one. The bottom mark will point straight down. Set the cam with the alignment dowel pin at straight up. The actual timing mark is just to the left of straight up.

Then it doesn't matter where the bright links are.

Be very careful to not rotate the cam or short block independently of each other, the engine is an interference design and the valves can be bent....*EB

oops, I meant 23. I counted just the outside links.