Trick/tip, in car oil pan rear gasket install?

you can pull in a 455 Olds rope seal with a sneaky pete. IIRC you can get a regular hard seal in there too without pulling the crank: use a punch on one end and tap it around the crank and the old one will rotate out, grab it and turn the crank. The new one can be rolled in too. Did it 10+ years ago so I may be wrong, I may have loosened all the main caps to do this...?