what are the steps for removing the gas tank from a stock 02 sportster?

It looks pretty straightforward. Anything I should know about?

 

Drain fuel, shut off the petcock, remove the fuel line from the back of the petcock, Remove the vacuum line off the back of the petcock (If Equipped), remove the fuel vent line from the bottom of tank, (carb side of bike), remove seat, remove front and rear mounting bolts, lift off tank..

 

If you want to avoid disturbing the nice fuel line connection, and vacuum line connection at the petcock (if you have one), run the bike until it is nearly out of gas, then let it idle until it sputters. Alternately, siphon off the gas. With this done, you can unscrew the petcock from the tank with minimal gas spillage into a funnel and can. Then it's just a matter of removing the seat, fuel vent line, and tank mounting bolts. The tank can be lifted straight up leaving the petcock behind.

 

Thanks!

Almost ready to paint!

 

Until I saw the comment about being ready to paint, I was gonna say, there isn't a need to drain the gas just to remove the tank. But, if the reason you're taking the tank off is for a paint job, may as well go ahead and drain it before you take it off I suppose.