Replacing 3/16" caged wheel bearings with loose bearing

cheese_toastie

Hi, I have an old Raleigh mountain bike. There was a bit of play in both front and back wheels, the back just had 9 loose 1/4" bearings either side so replaced these no problem, but the front has 3/16" caged bearings. LBS had some but the cage was metal and not plastic like the old ones.
Would anybody know if it is ok to just replace with 10 loose 3/16" bearings both sides as the original type plastic caged look pretty hard to get? Can't even see any on ebay. Thanks in advance for any advice.

nicklouse

should be fine.