Hey there,

I'm new to the Wrangler world after owning a Grand Cherokee forever. I bought an 05 Unlimited with a soft top 2 months ago and have loved it. I have put the top up and down several times as I live in IA and have different weather every day. I never had an issue. For whatever reason, as I went to put my soft top back up two weeks ago, it now won't snap into the locks above each door (my first step in putting the soft top back on). Its as if something is bound up and holding the soft top an inch above the latches, and I can't push hard enough to force them into the grooves. It also brings the back end of the soft top up way too high, and I'm confused because I never had this problem until recently.

I've tried putting the top on from front to back, like usual, and even from back to front. I've even latched in the windshield latches first and tried to pull the top back into place, but nothing. It's been record heat in Iowa the last 2 weeks, and I've left the top spread out to stretch it and still no progress. Is there something I'm missing? Has anyone ran into this problem? I'm getting sick of driving my brother's Explorer when there's spotty weather...

You don't by chance have the about 2 inch wide strap that runs along each side of the top hung up somewhere do you? I did that once, took me a bit to figure it out.

DO you have the header latches latched in those pictures?

I've looked at those straps several times and they seem to be fine... No different than they were when it was working well. And yes, in the pictures the header latches are latched, but that was to stretch the top a little and to show how far out my side locks are (and how high the back end is). If I unlatch them, the locks are still an inch away from where they need to be.

Give me a bit to get some pics of mine, something just doesn't look right with your frame.

I always did the header latches as my last step. Seemed easier to keep everything straight by starting from the rear as it unfolded.

Barrie, Thanks! That would be great.

And Nick, I usually also do the header latches last. I've tried every imaginable combo to figure out what's wrong.

Do you have sleeves that go over the knuckles for the sunrider (over driver and pass doors). That could be your problem. Also check to make sure the center bar(right over those clips) isnt hung up on anything.

Those two inch straps don't look quite right from what I can see in one pic. It looks like they are wrapped around the bar instead of free. . Can you take a close up pic of those straps. If I recall on mine that was often my hang up to which you describe.

Those straps look like they are in the upper right of your second pic.

This is what my top frame looks like with the top up, I just unzipped the side window to take this pic.

You may have a strap that is hung up as Barry suggests. But latching the header latches last is doing it the hard way. What you want to do first is insert the latch hooks into the slots in the windshield but don't latch them. Then go fully insert the top's rear corners into the tub. THEN close the header latches to clamp the header down to the windshield.

I am betting Flyfish is right, the straps are caught up some where, and like jerry said, I just hook my windshield latches and then go to the back and hook my sail panels. I lock my latches the very last thing.

I'll check those straps again after work today. That was my first thought but perhaps I just missed something on them. Also, thanks for the picture! That's exactly how mine looks when its been up before too, so I gotta figure out what happened the last time I took it down. Side note: it's poured all day here, so good thing I didn't bring the Wrangler to the office...

I checked those straps again. They are wrapped around the 2 bar, but they are bolted in that way. I couldn't see a way to "unwrap" them without tools to unscrew them from that 2 bar momentarily, so that seems to be the original design. Any thoughts?

I think it's closer to the header. I don't have an LJ, but the mechanism just to the rear of the header looks to be wrong.

Only time I had binding issues was the strap being hung up on something or the sleeve on the sunrider bar. I would take the top down and maybe off ( 2 torx bolts) and look it over carefully.

SOLVED! You guys were right, it was the strap that runs along each side of the soft top. When I completely removed it, it somehow got wrapped around the 2-bar on BOTH sides... which is hard to understand but it happened. We just removed the 3 screws on each side holding the strap to the 2-bar, unwound it, and screwed it back in. Thanks for the help guys!