Or just get it down on top of the oil pump, then crank the motor around and gently press down with a phillips (so it won't catch in the slot) screwdriver. That's a slightly more exciting way to do it!

When reassembling my new bottom end a couple of months ago I used a 'heavy duty' oil pump from IPD. It has a reinforcing ring around the oil pump tabs. I then sealed the pan gasket on, flipped the engine over, and started on the top end. When I got the cam in and tried to reinstall the distributor ger, I found that the resistance of the ring would not let the drive slip into plce - you couldn't feel where the slot was, it wouldn't slip in, nothing worked at all. I about had to pull the pan off, yank the oil pump, then reinstall with the drive in place. But I didn't really want to do that, so I instead dremeled the edges of the drive tab down, to give it a taper on the end. Only after that was I able to get it in place.
--
I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.