Originally Posted by
panzerwagon
Matching the open/closed-face sides of different retainers is irrelevant. What is important is matching the orientation of sides designed for cup vs cone. Your first photo shows the old 11-ball with the cup-side facing up, and the other two retainers with the cone-side facing up.
Sorry that you were affected by the storms— good luck with cleanup.
You are correct that the cup and spindle sides of the retained bearings must be correctly oriented. I know that.
I posted this because there's an old rule of thumb - which I've seen quoted here in numerous posts on Bike Forums - that says "the closed side of a 9-ball retainer goes inboard (towards the spindle), while the closed side of an 11-ball retainer goes outboard (towards the cup)." That rule does not seem to be universally true, given the fact that there are two different 11-ball retainer designs.
I was unaware of the two different retainer designs. I wanted to highlight this in case other members were similarly unaware of the two different designs, apparently requiring opposite orientations.
Thanks for the good wishes. We were incredibly lucky. Many within a few miles weren't.