I can feel a tiny bit of play when pulling on the crank arm (seated on the drive side & pulling it twords myself, not in the direction of the rotation).

I makes sense that if you toss the bearing retainers, there will be extra room for at least 1 more bearing. I asked him & he said only 11 bearings will fit in.

We'll see. Hopefully issue will be resolved by the end of the day.

Thanks for all the advice & such. I'll post here later when I have it figured out. I'm also gonna go post this in the mechanics forum.
-john