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?

".......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....."

The swing-arm has to come off, first.  In essence; you're starting at the wrong end.

scotch wrote:

".......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....."

The swing-arm has to come off, first.  In essence; you're starting at the wrong end.

Well that sure would help if I started on the right side...

Had a bad case of needing to RTFM as I tried to hammer the swing arm pivots through at first before finding they need to be pulled out. Tapped them to 8mm and used some washers with a 23mm socket to pull it out pretty easily (thanks to the post I can't find on here suggesting this). Cut a 30mm wrench to match 57001-1040 out of some 3/16 steel which held the coupler pretty well. I'm going to try modeling one of these up at some point and printing a few in SS. 30mm wide by 70mm long.

At this point, I'm kind of lost on what I need to do next to finish disassembling the lower part of the engine since the crank case seems to have liquid gasket applied. All of the side covers came off easily other than the shifter housing which needed some love taps with a mallet to the bottom while rocking it to get the part that connects to the shifter through the gasket.

Regarding your question on how to split the crankcase - This is covered on page 99 of the Factory Service Manual and specifically look at drawing F14 which shows the 4 halfjoint bolts holes which are tapped for 8mm bolts to allow you to force the case halves apart. Read the instructions. It's straight forward.
Pay attention to the note regarding force. If you missed removing a bolt or 2, you could crack the crankcase. From experience, it takes little force to push the crankcase apart. You could almost do it with your fingers on the 8mm bolts.