I'll preface this by saying i'm the king of beating the shit out of mountain bike parts and have very little patience for how finicky sram drivetrains have been for me. I have a few gx derailleurs laying around that something wasn't quite right with, that I'd like to maybe rebuild or turn them into one good one like an eddie van halen guitar. Looking back I should've also invested in a derailleur hanger alignment tool and working on my patience. My goal here is to overcome the dislike I have for the sram drivetrain and save a few bucks because when they are working perfect I think they feel nicer than shimano. But the issue with them is how intolerant they are of not being perfectly set up, I think shimano has a lot more tolerance.
Current issue – my current derailleur on the hardtail I ride mostly is a gx eagle (10-50) the cassette is a sunrace 10-50 seems fine and not moving around (I know those can get movement if the lockring isn't torqued right) and has been starting to act weird. I'll check the cable stretch, limits, index, and check the pulley gap before I ride next. I have ran into issues previously where the cassette will have a fucked up or even missing tooth and some of these symptoms get resolved with new cassette $$$ However, historically for me once these weird issues start happening (skipping under load or not shifting up/down smoothly) I have just replaced the derailleur because even if i start from scratch, replace shift cable, hanger, etc – the things still just never get back to normal and I spend too much time troubleshooting or missing time riding (my full sus was converted to shimano xt, 0 issues and has been set and forget)
Also – who makes the best rebuild kits for these derailleurs? I have seen this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqBEseoJvak but the kits are like 100 bucks? Why not spend a few extra and get a brand new one? I also saw someone using an x01 B bolt as an "upgrade" to the gx one.
I plan to start going to start going through the older ones that are sitting in boxes to start seeing what seems salvageable and what doesn't. I also have a hanger tool coming as well, any guidance or thoughts are much appreciated.
by OkEfficiency2047