The Singer 431G is a stellar machine. Seriously, it’s one of my favorites but it and its sibling, the 421G do have flaws. The 421G suffers from the first one and the 431G suffers from both. Luckily, both issues are easily solved.
Flaw #1: I feel that the throat plate pins were a poorly thought out design.
In the photo above, you can see that both pins are broken. Originally, it looked a lot like a Philips (cross) screw from the top and I think this might be how they get broken.
Some people may have thought that a screwdriver was needed to remove the throat plates – and “conveniently”, there’s probably one that fits right in the accessories box just inches away.
These plates lift off, no driver required.
All of the 431Gs that have been on my bench have had at least one of these pins broken or missing. One machine had some ground down screws as replacements that scored and gouged the aluminum horribly. That machine came with a service invoice that showed that some “helpful” serviceman had even charged for the privilege of having the machine so damaged.
So, once the pins are broken, how does one fix this? After all, the parts are long since discontinued.
First, the method. Replacement is very easy.
