I hear, but don't like prying either. H Frt has copper hammers cheap. Soft blows along the CL of the shaft seem better to me. I use a 2 jaw puller with tension and strike.
:2cents::laughing:
When a prybar is mentioned those not in the know assume we are trying to pry the flywheel off. Those in the know realize that couldn't be farther from the truth.
The bar is only to lift the weight of the flywheel and crank shaft off of the thrust bearing so the crank shaft has a few thousandths to drop when the two tapered surfaces become free. Those that don't know and want to learn can observe someone removing a tapered drill chuck from a drill press or wood lathe tail stock or metal lathe etc.
Recently I demonstrated this to a fellow who couldn't get the chuck off of his drill press. Not having the correct tool, a drift, I improvised and popped it out in a second. He was just amazed those two tapers were there and had the holding power they did.
If a soft hammer isn't available, sacrifice a penny if you are concerned about damaging the shaft end.