I've been told the way to verify that my timing chain was set up right was to start with all the marks at the top, the cam socket mark, the two bright links, the keys on the crankshaft...then rotate the engine through two 360 degree revolutions, and then all these marks should be right back where they started, at top.

I did this, but the marks weren't all there. The bright links were over on the side, even when the crank and the cam socket were back with their marks at the top/pointing up. I rotated up to 8 times to see if the two bright links would show up at the top, but they didn't.

Any ideas what this means?

Forgot to mention, the rotation was clockwise.

Because of the different tooth count on each gear, it will take many many revolutions before that bright link comes back to the very top. As long as the crank and cam marks are coming back to the top every couple of rotations (and nothing is binding up like valves and pistons) then it sounds like you got it right.

Yes, you would probably need to figure out the least common multiple of the sprocket tooth count and the number of links o chain to figure out how many rotations it'll take to repeat the shiny link position.

Thanks for straightening me out on the bright links. Could you tell me what binding would feel like if I did have a piston hitting a valve. I'm getting resistance at certain spots that feels like compression (the spark plugs are all out), there's no noise, and it's fairly easy to continue the rotation. If a piston was hitting a valve, would I even be able to continue the rotation by hand? I'm grasping the crank pulley and turning it clockwise.

>>>*The engine is vertical, so normal leverage will increase resistance when passing TDC.

To verify the timing, set the engine on TDC, #1 compression stroke. At this point the lower timing mark will be pointed straight down. The cam gear alignment dowel will be straight up. The tooth just to the left as you face it will have the top timing mark. The side plates on the chain will bracket the tooth with the mark.

If all is in place, she is correct and you can forget the bright links....*EB