My rear wheel is off my bike right now as I'm waiting on a tire I ordered to come in. Since this was the first time I had many questions myself. I really didn't want to disconnect the right and left side exhausts to remove the rear wheel and service the drive shaft. So what I did was this. I took the suggestion from the maintenance section on the forum. I went to Home Deport and purchased a pack of not wood but composite shims. There located in the door section of the store. These shims are made of wood and plastics somehow and they worked perfectly. I took two shims on each side of the bike and wedged them between the exhaust mounts and the exhaust itself. By doing so it moves the exhaust outward just enough so that in my case i could raise my bike on a cycle lift and then with the axle and everything removed the swing arm drops all the way down and I could then remove my rear wheel from underneath the rear fender. I also easily was able to remove the final drive and drive shaft with no problem at all. I did not however remove the U joint like you want to.
I hopes this help you out.
Gerry
Ive been doing it that way for years too, but be careful...theres no need to lower the swing arm "all the way down" just low enough to clear the exhaust to avoid stressing the u-joint. In fact I have started the procedure of raising the swing arm so the axle comes out over the exhaust to skip the step of strapping it up to stop it from over extending