If you have the ring gear and carrier out, try bolting a piece of heavy angle iron to the lower carrier bearing saddles and use a piece of large-diameter all-thread and a nut as a jackscrew to push against the pinion gear. You can accomplish a lot more with a push tool than you can with a hammer, and the force is more controllable.
Jerry

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt!
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!