One more thing to consider. You will have to install the cam gear AND make sure that it's in time with the crank gear. If it isn't, then you'll have to slide the cam forward to get it in time with the crank gear. In that case, you'll be thinking that you should have just pulled it out in the first place since you'll be doing all of the same steps as removing it in the first place. You just won't have to pull it out all the way. Of course you could pull the gear back off, move the cam, and try it again, but you already know how hard it is to get that gear off in the first place. I wouldn't recommend trying it, but you're welcome to try it that way. At the shop I worked at, with the cam out of the engine, we would place the back end of the cam on a rag covering a wood block. Then we'd drive the gear all the way on with a brass drift. Just as an extra safety precaution, we would use red Lock Tite on the cam bolt threads. Blue would probably be enough to hold it on. Here again, I didn't question, I just did as I was told.