Trav,

Without seeing the parts first hand, my GUESS is that you can still make it work. I'm assuming your donor has the e-shift actuator as well? I've not seen a good picture even, but I'm guessing the actuator operates the shift rods from the back, vs the mechanical shifter working them from the front on earlier years.

Is it possible to just remove it and plug the holes on the rear? To shift it you could maybe cut & tap/drill the rods from the front and use a cable shifter setup. This looks like it could work on the older cases... again, not sure on the 98+ ones.

Then there's always the possibility of replacing the front t-case housing/back of tranny piece with an earlier one with the mechanical t-case shifter in it, but you'd basically be swapping your tranny guts into a new housing doing so...

It's gonna be hard to figure out unless Jerry pipes in or you start taking things apart and see what swaps w/ what.

--Dan