Water pump replacement

In the process of replacing water pump on my 95 neon. All I need to do is remove the crankshaft pulley. Cannot loosen the bolt without turning the camshaft.I noticed somewhere somebody took a socket,extension and small ratchet and put them on a rear cover bolt and used them to wedge against the pulley so it wouldn't move then put another ratchet on the pulley bolt and loosened it. My problem is I have to rotate the camshaft clockwise around about 3 inches or so. Should I put the timing belt back on tighten it up and remove the spark plugs and use a wood dowel and rotate the crankshaft around until the dowel drops below the top of the cylinder about an inch or so. Or would it be okay just to rotate the crankshaft around with the belt off and use the dowel rod. Then rotate the crankshaft and camshaft back to the correct timing marks. Also do I need a special installer to put the camshaft pulley back on all the way.I will rent a harmonic balancer installer to put the crankshaft pulley back on. Hope this doesn't sound to confusing just don't want to cause any problems on my part.