LP D35 front would be a waste of time, and weaker than a HP D30 front...
Been there with the 8.8 idea....
If it comes to pass that HP D44 housings become harder and harder to find, I would say an 8.8 front with D44 outers would be worth it. Im fairly confident that an 8.8 in the front (with lots of pinion bearing preload) could be close in reliability with an HP 44, as the ring and pinion on the 8.8 is much more stout than a D44. The downfall is the low pinion design and the fact you would have to have D44 shafts splined to 31 instead of 30 (same diameter). The reason you can get away with running 14-bolts and 9"s in the front as a low pinion setup, is because they have a 3rd bearing at the end of the pinion that kills pinion deflection. By nature a low pinion setup is going to pull the pinion toward the ring gear, which pulls preload off the inner bearing, and the pinion can deflect away from the ring gear, with the third bearing, there is no deflection. That is why traditional 2 bearing low pinion setups suck.
Been there with the 8.8 idea....
If it comes to pass that HP D44 housings become harder and harder to find, I would say an 8.8 front with D44 outers would be worth it. Im fairly confident that an 8.8 in the front (with lots of pinion bearing preload) could be close in reliability with an HP 44, as the ring and pinion on the 8.8 is much more stout than a D44. The downfall is the low pinion design and the fact you would have to have D44 shafts splined to 31 instead of 30 (same diameter). The reason you can get away with running 14-bolts and 9"s in the front as a low pinion setup, is because they have a 3rd bearing at the end of the pinion that kills pinion deflection. By nature a low pinion setup is going to pull the pinion toward the ring gear, which pulls preload off the inner bearing, and the pinion can deflect away from the ring gear, with the third bearing, there is no deflection. That is why traditional 2 bearing low pinion setups suck.