It does take quite some time. You aren't by chance trying to go from a4wd or 4hi to N? I did some dumb crap to mine before by engaging it into gear with the truck running. It ground the gear for a second but stopped engaging and left it in N until I shut it off. No damage though so I got lucky for my stupidity. I get mine into N by having the truck on but not running, leave it in park and the 4wd selector to 2hi then go all the way to the right past 4lo and hold it for quite awhile. I usually get to count to 15 before it goes into N for the transfer case. Then to make sure the parking pawl is not engaged, I shift it from park to N on the shifter and then back to park and it is freewheeling without any engagement.