Having read through all of the posts, I think I have a few comments.

1) If you're steering's feeling loose and you know it's not the powersteering pump, then it might be worth using this as an opportunity to upgrade. Having the SLR system myself, I can easily state that it's a sweet system and it was like night and day when I drove it for the first time.

2) Calmini products... Like all products, there are going to be those that last a long time, those that last and average amount of time and those that fail for one reason or another. If Jeff got one of the latter, then no matter what his attitude / approach was toward getting a replacement part, it was the manufacturer's responsibility to replace the parts. Even if Jeff were a world-class a-hole on the phone, any company that has to deal with the public has to come to terms with the fact that some people are going to be unhappy when a product fails. So, while some of you are telling Jeff to suck it up and get over it, I'd use the same argument for Calmini - suck it up and understand that it's sometimes just good PR to make an unhappy customer at least neutral, if not happy.

3) On Jeff's ability to follow instructions and appreciate the risks / costs of the hobby we all have. I've known Jeff for just about a year now and, if anything, he's uber-anal about making sure that things are done the right way, using the best information available. So, while I would expect that I could make a mistake on an install, I wouldn't expect that from Jeff because, by the time the parts are laid out (neatly) to be installed, he's already memorized the instructions, measured three times and cut once.

Oh, and did I mention that SLR products rock?