ak2m4

I am testing for some now but I really recommend going for bushings if your having shimming issues

Thing is - I have no room for shims with the standard CYMA bushings at the min and putting the old bearings in from my CYMA platinum that neg built for me means I can add shims and it's a lot quieter - but they don't quite fit the holes and pop in and out a bunch and it's making me nervous that they might give up the ghost, hence me looking for new ones. Might consider the XT bushings now that you're mentioning them though..

Some bushings / bearings sometimes require a little bit of retaining compound or glue to hold them in place.  With bearings if you try to force fit them you can damage their structure quite easily.