sixty5vdub

I had the driver's side strap rip through the pop rivets on mine. It rode fine with the top up. No major issues. If I slid the sunrider portion back, than that corner of the top would come loose from the body, and flop around in the wind.

I installed new pop rivets, with some washers on them to keep them from ripping back through. Has held up for over a year now.

Also, in that picture: That strap is installed incorrectly. It should be running over the rear soft top bar, not under. Taking the top loose in the back and rotating the strap around to the top of the bar helps keep everything nice and tight.



Anthony

JKU Rubicon

Thanks everybody
I take the risk to remove the 2 straps.

Beastmaster

Okay, I know this is a really old thread but it has sure come in handy for me. I just bought a 4-year JK Unlimited and it had a torn strap, I found this thread to see what people had done to fix them (lots of great posts by the way). I figured I'd post for future people buying used rag top Jeeps.
I have driven convertibles of some type for many years and they come in different designs, they are all are somewhat universal in function.
They are called check straps. Their sole purpose is to keep the bows aligned when raising and lowering the top. Are they absolutely necessary for the top to function? No, but they can affect how well the top and bows fit together (too tight here, too loose there, you get the picture) or things may be fine. They can get ripped if the top is folded from the side by one person (you can stop this by either using 2 people or standing in the Jeep and folding from the middle). I plan on going to an upholstery store, buying a length of strap and using my pop rivet gun. The damaged strap I have isn't a result tears at the rivets, but to prevent that, I plan on folding the strap to double it where the rivet will go through.
I'll try to remember to take pics.