I'm repairing a bike for my neighbor. The spring tab on the Sora FD-3403 broke and no longer maintains tension. I need to obtain a compatible FD. This bike is an 8 speed rear and triple front. The big chainring is 52 teeth. I've found a Tiagra 4503 but it says the max is 50 teeth and appear to be rated as 9 speed. Can I run a 9 speed rated FD with an 8 speed chain and RD without problems? If this was my bike I wouldn't worry but I need to hand this bike over once I'm done and I'd like to make sure they can maintain and adjust it without too much extra effort.

What are my options?

Partly depends on whether the triple is 52/42/30 or 52/39/30. These require slightly different FDs because the
one that works for a 39t mid CW has a deeper vertical cage in the back than for the 42t mid so the cage when
set for the 52 (or 50) will hang up on the 42 where it clears the 39t. If you look at pix of prior era FDs for triples
you will see some of them have larger vertical cages than others. The 4503 will have been meant for the 39t mid
option. A friend who liked 44t mid rings dremeled off 3-4mm of the bottom of the cage and made it work about
10-12 yrs ago. I would not be concerned over the 52 vs 50t large CW. FD won't care much.

Thank you for the response.

It is in fact a 52/42/30 config. For the record, the bike is a 2002 Spec Allez A1. Entry level. It uses a 31.8 dia clamp. I'd like to ensure that whatever I replace it with will meet those specs and work for this config.

I read an earlier post and it was suggested that the following would work...
Sora 3403 or 3503
Tiagra 4403 or 4503
105 5503
Ultegra 6503

I just noticed that the origial FD is a Sora 3304 and not 3404 as stated above