It's highly advisable that you remove the valve cover, as it will make feeding the lever in much easier. Also, did you set the engine at TDC on the compression stroke of the #1 cylinder? Unless you do that, odds are you're going to fight a nasty battle. If you've already pulled the fuel pump, but don't really have anything else apart, you can still set TDC.

Trace the #1 plug wire back to the distributor and that will identify the #1 plug. Remove the distributor cap. Hopefully, you have already disconnected the negative terminal to the battery. If not, do so. With a large socket and breaker bar, crank the front of the crankshaft until you line-up the timing mark to "0", then look at which terminal in the distributor the rotor is pointing at. If it's at the #1 terminal, you're good. If it's 180-degrees away from it, crank the crankshaft around a full turn until you're lined up on the timing mark to "0" again. The rotor should now be pointing at the #1 terminal in the distributor. Continue with your fuel pump install at this point.