[Ren76]

Good day All!
Got my first CFMOTO second hand and mostly all is well.
One thing I noticed is that I have a fairly prominent clunk in the front end over bumps. Upon inspecting, I've come to the conclusion that the front shock bushings are in need of replacement. CFMOTO sadly shows them as non serviceable. I even wrote to CFMOTO to see if they were the same as another model or something and although they impressed me by writing back very promptly, they had no part to sell me. They mentioned trying a machine shop to match something up, but living in a small town, my one shop didn't have anything to suit my needs. Anyone replace these with something or have ideas? I hate the play in the front end knocking around when I ride. The ones on the EX show as serviceable, but the shocks are different, so I have to imagine the bushings are different too?

[NMKawierider]

If they are still like they were is 2015, they are a heim bearing, not a bushing, with sleeve inserts on either side. You can pull those, clean it up and see how loose that heim is before re-greasing and re-installing the sleeves. I don't think it comes out but the heim is steel...and the shock body is aluminum so there is a chance something can be done...IF this is really your problem. I will say that mine squeaked so bad it forced me to grease them well before they wore out so...also because CFM built-in a dual-rate to their spring and had different quenching temps, the lighter rate areas (tighter coils) did collapse faster then the other making those coils bang together and gave us the feeling of bottoming-out as well as a banging sound. Look for the paint to be worn off from making contact. In the mean time this is a shock service video I made when I did mine many years ago. Try it on yours.

   

[NMKawierider]

I would add that historically, aside from a broken shock or weakened springs, suspension banging has come from either warn a-arm bushings, ball joints.. or more often the movement of the upper a-arm bolt in it's mounts from not being torqued. This eggs the holes out and makes movement. One of my front's started doing that but I caught it in time to over-torque the bolt so it would stay put. Have someone jack yours enough to get the wheels off the ground while you watch the bolt head or nut for movement.

[Ren76]

This! ... This is why I joined the forum, You were 100% right. They're not bushings as I first suspected and they have now received a much needed service as per your video. Sadly, it didn't get rid of my death knock, but was much needed none the less. Great info! That said, everything SEEMS tight really, so I suspect I may have a bad shock? Gonna try switching them sides to see if the knocking moves... Again, thanks for the epic advise!