Yeah.....And the 52 will still work with 6 of those wires cut.....Simple is a good thing...
With the Tranny in Neutral....and the engine running the shifts between 2H and 4H should only take about 3 seconds or so.....Same on the other shifts.
If you do put the T case in Neutral.....Going back into 2H or 4H can be noisy as the input shaft will start to spin up.....
Shifting on the fly is quite fine....Just shift the tranny to N and press the button.... ONCE THE 4H LIGHT COMES ON....SHIFT THE TRANNY BACK INTO GEAR *****DO NOT shift to 4 LOW on the move......NO NO... Full stop and tranny in N then select 4L*****
After being in 4x4 FOR A TIME....to shift out....Stop.....back up a few feet (15/20) then shift to 2H ...This will free up the drive train and allow the shift to complete much more reliably....Easier on the shift fork wear pads.. Always get tranny to N when shifting....
I would say if the shift motor is not working within the times described....A fresh shift motor is in order.....Far better to deal with this issue in decent weather.....Get all the wiring neat and tidy too...Tucked up away from road debris and such....Connections all cleaned with cleaner and dielectric grease added to the plug connections.....Zip ties are always a good thing to get stuff secured..
The headlong rush to put electronic control modules on everything has come to a fever pitch.....
The family grocery getter .....Well they may be a little less susceptible to physical failures of the electronics due to tough operating conditions....But a well put up "Rig" needs to be as "BOMB PROOF" as possible.....
The military uses a lot of real sophisticated equipment .....But I always laughed at the fact that the civilian version of the HMMWV had to have the Electronic injection and crap that was/is prone to failure....
The mil stuff was/is bare bones gitterdone and bring the crew home safe.....Unless they hit a IED that blows off half the rig.....
A little story from back a few years.
I had purchased a 1991 K1500 Burb....Lovely rig.....Low miles and just immaculate.
We had a snow event that started one afternoon....We headed home and the roads are getting snotty even in town.
We stop for groceries ...while the rest of the family is in the store I decided to twist in hubs while we were in a safe place....We would need the 4x4 for sure getting home.
While I am out twisting the hubs a young fella is watching me intently and just had to come ask WHATCHA DOING ???
I explained ....I got the deer in the headlights look ......
He starts in on an in depth explanation of his ABS, traction control and yada yada yada in his late model SUV.....
I smiled at the young fella...."Yeah...Right...UH HUH" and crawled back in the Burb
Family shows up...we load the groceries and head up the mountain.....
We get to the first tough spot and here is the little SUV upside down in the bar ditch....and a whole batch of other rigs all tied in a knot......
The Burb crawled through the mess and did a magnificent job.....Simple operation.....No need for any failure prone parts to get in the way......
The little SUV was in that Bar ditch for a couple weeks before somebody dragged it out......
I do not know the exact circumstances as to how it got upside down.....
Driver error was probably the vast majority of the issue.. And believing all the BS in TV ads that show the happy HOOOOOMANS scooting along through the deep white fluffy stuff in their SUV......
Some many old tricks (Pitch it and gas it) will not work with the newer rigs...The electronic controls keep you from doing things that work well.....
Our 05 Burb has the same push button 4x4 yours has.....Turning off the Traction control helps a lot.....Trying to get wheel speed up fast enough to get through the tough stuff is impossible when the traction control is ON
It just turns off the throttle (Electronic) when it senses wheel slip......ARRRRRRGH
Laziness on the part of people....."What are people going to think if I have to get out and turn something to have 4x4 ???? " I laugh at these notions.
IF the electric shift motor works AND all the modules and such do what they are supposed to....The system works.... BUTTTTTTTT One wire gets chaffed....one magic box dies and you are fouled.... And no way to manually get it going to get home...
Hubs rarely if ever fail......Hard usage can break them....I have never broken one....The auto hubs.....NOT SO MUCH....FAILURE PRONE ITEM.....Warn hubs...yessssssssssss....Or similar
Living in a very unforgiving place like you do.....I would prefer all mechanical.....Sleep better at night too....