Putting a rear main seal in a 90 Jeep 4.0. What shoulda been a 2 hour job is driving me nuts. The top 1/2 of the seal is stuck in the block. Backed off on the mains some to get the pressure of the crank off of it and everything. Usually just tap em out enough to grab it and pull it out. Its like tapping on metal its so hard. Any ideas? Anything I can spray it with to soften it up a little? Customer dont wanna pull the engine and then the crank to get it out. Its bout to the point that thats the only option left. Thanks.

can you thread a tiny screw into it and grab the screw with needle nose pliers?

Tried that with a sheetrock screw,(didnt wanna use a sheetmetal screw and scratch the crank or block) have done it before. Ate the threads on the screw up. I've never seen a piece of rubber get that hard. I can pull the motor and crank and get it out no problem, but the customer dont wanna go there.

Got it out, lotsa PB Blaster and lotsa . Man I aint never had one stuck that bad.