the boundaries of philosophical constructs

I was extremely careful when I removed the spindle not to lose any of the ball-bearings from either side. I should have perhaps started on clearing out, cleaning then regreasing the original hub before removing the spindle from the temporary (but, until I removed it, fully-functioning) spare but did it the wrong way round and discovered slightly too late that there were eleven balls in one race and only eight on the other. Neither sounds like the correct number and the mismatch indicates that at least one is wrong, most probably the eight of the sprocket-side as it contained quite a bit more gunk than the left side, though I wouldn't have thought it to be as much as four ballsworths. Laying everything out and seeing how many balls would fit comfortabley round the outer part of the cone indicates that the round-sounding twelve appears to be the correct number. I might check out the balls from the temporary hub (which are likely to be quite similar given that the spindle and cones are interchangeable, at least temporarily) but might get a fresh set tomorrow lunchtime for longevity's sake.