[1911Tuner]

As you've probably discovered by now, the only way to determine that the link pin is walking is to remove the barrel, and the only way to remove the barrel is to remove the slide because the recoil spring guide is in the way, and the only way to remove that is to remove the slide, and the only way to remove the slide is to get it back far enough for the slidestop to line up with the takedown notch, and the only way that will happen is to get the barrel to drop far enough to let the slide pass over it unhindered.

Thus my point that the OP first has to get the slide to move far enough to remove the slidestop, and proceed from there.