1980 B2 Rebuild

Was able to get the water pump drive shaft removed with some lock jaw pliers. A bit of stripping from the wrench but otherwise in good condition.

Moving on the the drive shaft, I can't seem to figure out how to get the bolts removed on the engine side with the boot in the way. Any suggestions here, as I don't see anything for this in the manual?

I can remember it being a bit of a challenge. The boot tends to get hard and not very pliable which adds to the issue. I found that wiping the boot with wintergreen oil will soften up the boot which is a good thing.Let the wintergreen oil work on the boot for a day before  reafing on it or you'll likely split it. I fixed up 3 splits in my boot with Loctite Black Max, which is a superglue used in fabricating custom o-rings.  Also, as I remember it, if you remove both bands, you can slip the engine side more inbound towards the crankcase giving a bit more room to work on the bolts.. I found that a block of wood across the swingarm and between the spokes of the wheel was needed to hold the driveshaft while breaking free the 4 coupling bolts. They're torqued to 54 lbs/ft plus likely blue locktite.

Well that's why I'm a bit confused how I'm supposed to go about this. The boot is flexable enough for me to get a 12mm wrench in but there doesn't seem to be enough space between the bolt and the frame tube where the shaft runs through to the back wheel to get my ratchet in. I'm getting a lot of flex in my wrench (likely due to the 54 lbs/ft you mentioned) and I'm worried I'll strip the bolt. Additionally, I definetly can't see myself being able to get a torque wrench in there to tighten them back up. I estimated that there is ~1 inch of room for me to work with.

This is the tool set (GEARWRENCH 80966 243 Pc. 6 Pt. Mechanics Tool Set In 3 Drawer Storage Box) I was gifted last year, so should I consider grabbing some thicker wrenches or some sort of super low profile ratchet/torque wrench?