Service, Parts and Discontinued Products - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

I did not find the answer to my question here. How do I get further assistance?

Unfortunately, we do not stock the manual for your equipment separately. However, we can have our office copy photocopied for you at a charge of $2.00 plus $5.50 shipping (US) or $13.50 shipping (international). If you wish to purchase a copy from us, please fax us at 217-398-7721 with a credit card # for payment (Visa/MasterCard), or mail us a check to:

Hobby Services
3002 N. Apollo Drive, Suite #1
Champaign IL 61822

Unfortunately, we are unable to send out via open account (with an invoice) due to our computer system setup.

PLEASE NOTE: We require the following information:

1. The name of the specific product (ie. SuperTigre G-2300) (as much info as you have if you are not sure of the exact name);
2. Your mailing information;
3. Your payment information; and
4. Your return phone number and email address to provide you confirmation of your order.

Please note that copied manuals cannot be returned or refunded. If you are unsure the name/make/model # of your kit, please ask for help from fellow modelers to be sure your purchase is correct. Please be sure you provide us the kit # or full kit name when we take an order to copy your manual or plans, as we cannot refund the cost if what you receive is incorrect.

Please refer to our Repair Services page for the shipping address and instructions.

Please visit our parts page to see if we have a listing for your engine. If you are unable to find your engine in this listing, please contact us with detailed information on your exact engine and the parts you are seeking so we can see if we still stock your old parts.

As with any company's warranty, the warranty period starts from the date of original purchase. Strictly speaking, an item sent for warranty service must include a proof of purchase date. This eliminates any questions about the warranty period and its expiration. Unfortunately, this includes items received as gifts. If an item is purchased by another individual, hopefully you will have no problems in obtaining a receipt to validate a warranty claim, or that individual can send it to us for warranty coverage. Items that are purchased used will have no warranty, neither will an unused item sold to a second owner, unless the original purchase date can be proved. A warranty is only to the original purchaser. A bill of sale between individuals is not considered a valid purchase receipt.

If you believe you have an item which warrants a warranty claim and you are in the U.S. (if you are outside the U.S. please contact the international contact in your region), please refer to our Repair Services page for the shipping address and instructions.

If you have any questions regarding warranty coverage, please do not hesitate to contact our warranty center, Hobby Services, at productsupport@hobbyservices.com, or 217-398-0007 (M-F 9-5 Central Time) or fax at 217-398-7721.

If you emailed our support teams, you should receive an automated response immediately or nearly immediately. (This automated response will inform you our normal response time is by the end of the next business day and provide you other important details to assist you.) If you did not receive a computer generated response within 24 hours, then something was wrong and your email was not received properly or there is something wrong with your reply to address set up in your email account. Please resend the email to us with a note that this is a second copy and please be SURE to provide us your full email address as well as at least one other means of daytime contact (phone, message #, fax, alternate email address).

We strive to reuse the same parts as much as possible to help allow long term parts support for older models and make things as easy as possible for our customers, our dealers, and our own inventory. If the specific part from your model is reused in another model, then the same part # is nearly always reused, maintaining continuity and parts support. If that specific item is no longer listed, and we do not list a substitution for it, then it is very likely we do not have anything that will be a direct replacement fit, and we cannot recommend attempting to modify parts from another model.

It's far easier to identify the product visually, so we recommend you take your model to your local hobby shop or R/C club to see if a fellow modeler can help you identify it. If you would like us to try to assist you in identifying the product, please email us as complete a description as possible, preferably including photographs, and we will do our best to identify your item for you.

We will be happy to assist you. Please be advised, however, that depending upon how old your discontinued item is, we may only have limited information available to provide you. Please contact product support, being sure to provide full detailed information on your model, your full email address and at least 1 other means of daytime contact in your email.

This is a hard question to answer, as it is quite subjective. An engine rebuild is always based upon performance. If the engine has been used so much that it's performance is no longer acceptable, it should be rebuilt.

If the bearings have become rough through use or corrosion, you should replace them. If the crankshaft has visible movement inside the connecting rod, and not just oil squeeze, when it is turned, you need some new parts.

Outside of obvious physical damage, a rebuild is always a judgement call by the modeler. Sometimes, it costs less to buy a new engine than to buy the parts to rebuild it.

If you feel your engine has lost performance but don't know what needs service, send the engine to an engine specialist. If you're not familiar with proper disassembly and service, you might do irreparable damage to your engine which originally required only a small amount of parts.

In most cases if we do not have the item it is because it is no longer produced; however, occasionally we stop importing an item which the manufacturer still produces. If you wish to purchase an item we show discontinued, please contact your favorite dealer and ask them to special order the item. Note that they will need the actual manufacturer's part number, so you will need to locate this information (your model's manual may be helpful). They can contact our customer service team to place the special order. Please note that it may take 2-4 weeks to get an answer from the manufacturer as they research the item if they do not have stock, then 4-8 weeks delivery time unless you choose to pay for air delivery.

Thank you for the interest in our product. Please contact your local dealer and provide them with the manufacturer number (or detailed description) of the item you desire. The dealer will contact Great Planes to find out the status of the item. If the item is no longer available from the manufacturer your dealer will inform you, otherwise he should be able to special order it for you. Ask the dealer to get a quote on the cost of the special order and you can decide at that time whether or not you want to order it.

The Como Series of engines, made by SuperTigre, have been out of production since the early 1980s. During the time they were in production, they shared many parts with similarly-sized SuperTigre engines. Since then, though, there have been enough design changes in the SuperTigre engines that there are no longer any parts that are inter-compatible.

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