Your method for removing the front seal sounds like it will work. Before you knock the new seal in make sure the cover is centered by sliding the seal over the crank and against, but not into the cover. Then eye the relationship of the seal and cover, it should be centered, if not the cover needs to be moved. There are no locating pins on the cover and there is a lot of room for it to move around. I would suggest that if it needs to be moved that you go ahaead and remove the oil pan and cover and install new gaskets. The first one of these I did I just knocked a new seal in and it leaked just as bad, then I found out about centering the cover and tried loosening it and moving it with out removal. Ended up doing the job 3 times to get all the leaks fixed.