black_box 

My mountain bike (2010 gary fisher X-caliber) ended up being a (mostly) winter bike and various parts should likely be replaced due to salt. As it sits:

3x9 shimano crank, SRAM X9 front derailleur, X7 rear derailleur, X7 shifters, Avid Juicy 3 brakes.

Needs: front derailleur, rear derailleur, chain, cassette.
I have: new 9sp cassette, new 9sp chain, new shimano 2x10 crankset

SRAM X7 and X9 in 9sp are getting harder to find (I'm assuming I need long cage for the 3x9). Looking for recommendations... keep searching for x7 9sp? by a parts kit to fix the existing derailleurs? or replace all the 9sp things with 10sp or 11sp? Would this require a new rear wheel?

If the 2x10 (38/26) crankset will work with the existing 9sp items and let me use a short cage derailleur, that might be the cheapest route?

HerrKaLeun

Is that broken or still rideable? If rideable, just sell the bike. Over the last 5 years MTB geometry and suspension made a lot of progress, not worth to upgrade an old one.

If you need new drivetrain anyway, just go 1x11. With no FD, that may not even be more expensive and then at least the drivetrain will be like a new bike (for yourself, or resale).

Canker

or just spend $40 for a x5 sram 9 speed RD off amazon, doesn't need to be a x7. There isn't much to a front RD to go bad so just clean it and replace the cable. BTW if you do need to replace the front RD you can get a shimano or sram, doesn't matter.

black_box 

I'll have to take things apart, clean it up, and put the chain on to see what works. I'd rather fix this one up to be rideable than put more money into another bike right now.

black_box 

This might be the way to go, thanks.

Kapusta

Unless they got damaged, front and rear deraileurs seldom wear out. At least not in 8 years. Maybe some new pulleys for the rear, but that is usually about it. Crappy shifting is pretty much always due to either worn out cable/housing, poor adjustment, or a bent rear deraileur hanger.

I would be more worried about the condidtion of the suspension fork after a few winters.

roccobike

What Kapusta said.
I would replace all the cables and the housing first. SRAM makes some nice coated cables with a good quality housing to match. I used their stuff on my Shimano equipped Tarmac with good results.
Also, with SRAM, I've had excellent performance with their higher end rear derailleurs but not so much with their lower end rear derailleurs. If you're going to replace, I'd go used X9 off of ebay before I'd go new lower quality. As much of a Shimano fan that I am, I defer to SRAM on my best MTBs.