There's no need to take the pot off.
In fact, I guess I ought to add how little I stripped mine down for those who are scared by the thought of it being a big job.
I took off the bar and clutch cover. Full top cover and starter assembly cover. Then pop off the stop cable and ht lead from the circulation cover and remove the cover itself. The baffle plate on the flywheel side is now removable. A little tight between the fins of the flywheel, for the lower two bolts, but possible.
You could leave the flywheel side plate until the removal of the clutch side if you have trouble. Now, I took the two lower exhaust bracket bolts out, the ones into the saw body. Next remove the four studs holding the pot onto the body. The two at the front(nearest the can) can be left in situ, in fact I left my Allen key in the rubber locating grommet throughout, it being the last stud to be removed.
The pot, carb, and can can now be lifted high enough to access the lower securing studs on the clutch side plate( or at least it was enough on mine!).
I was lucky not needing to separate the can, carb, of any pipes or linkages, but a certain amount of this was due to particular tools used, as we are still talking of tight working area margins here.
On removal of the plates, following modding, it's basically refit in reverse of the above. A little care is needed though for the sealing ring that fits in the plate. This is slightly fiddly due to the pot still being in situ, but I found it best to sit the seal in the plate with a film of grease to hold in place while the studs are put in. Also, make sure you locate the studs into their old threads as they can go in cross threaded, being the self locating/threading type.
Hope this isn't too baffling after I said it was simple, and will be of help to someone.