004Heritage

How well will an 8.8 axle be able to handle 4.56's and a set of 35's?

CobraRGuy

The 8.8" differential is pretty strong. The weak point is the cast iron bearing caps which can crack under stress. For this reason a bearing cap support cover is recommended. These are pretty easy to find. Ford Racing has them in their catalog. The real issue is not necessarily with the gear ratio but how much torque is being applied to the pinion gear by your engine. YMMV...

Perry

ray h

The gear ratio does make a difference in an indirect way.
As you go to a lower gear (higher numerical) the head of the pinion gear actually gets smaller and it'll have fewer teeth. This means there a fewer pinion teeth engaging the ring gear teeth. Less engagement = slightly weaker.
The added torque that lower gears allow also stresses out the axle shafts more.
That being said, the 8.8 is a decent sized ring and pinion so that shouldnt be an issue. If you are going to lock it and wheel it hard, you should look into alloy shafts.

TheJMC

If you are going to run 35 be leery of the front outboard CV joints. If you have the wheels cranked hard over and apply too much gas the joint will fail.
The 8.8 can be made stronger but as soon as you chip a tooth and the broken piece tries to fit between the teeth the carrier will explode. I made metal soup out one of my 8.8 differentials.

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