Yes, pretty much everything wears out, but the shift motor doesn't wear out, it fails or..........
A fuse blows, GEM/SJB fails, 4x4 module fails, trans range sensor fails.
Quite a few failure points on the system, not wear out points, failure points.
Shiftster takes ALL those out of the picture, offers a little piece of mind that you will have 4WD when you actually need 4WD, especially if you don't used 4WD very often.
I recommend shifting in to 4high and 4 low once a month, don't need to drive it, just sit in driveway and shift it, that will help keep shift motor brushes clean and also let you know if there is a failure so it can be addressed before you NEED 4WD.
Yes, manual transfer case is THE FIX, and manual hubs if needed
Shiftster is the transition fix that is affordable and reliable.
Nice to see it is available again.
And Shiftster is also what you would use inside the cab if you wanted to design a retrofit manual shift to replace electric shift setup.
Shiftster already has the positions IDed and detents to hold shifter in position.
Just need a Flexible Shaft cable to transmit the rotational force to the transfer case shift rod.
Flexible Shaft cable transfers rotational movement, i.e. speedometer cable or plumbers snake
Bowden cable transfers linear movement, i.e. Transmission Column shifter cable or emergency brake cable.
But the terms are often used interchangeably, like calling a relay a solenoid, lol, my pet peeve