A small white plastic part that is part of the

go here and follow the links as this printer is now disscontinued
http://www.brother-usa.com/MFC/ModelDetail/4/MFC490CW/Overview

BROTHER will not feed paper after a jam

BROTHER MFC 230 will not feed paper after a jam

In my experience, what you say might be correct. The small white broken piece could be the arm that comes down and touches the top sheet of paper in the tray, so it knows how much paper is loaded. When there is no arm, it can not recognize that there is paper loaded, thus NO PAPER FEED. I have fixed one of these in the past, but I had 2 identical printers to mix and match parts. I am not sure what it will cost you, you would have to call the repair center and find out. It took me about 2 hours to fix, so I hope a professional could do it faster than that.

go to Brother International - Support for your Brother Product

Hi There,

I highly recommend you call Brother and get a list of certified repair techs for your locale and have them come and do the repair. Sanity in printing matters.

Regards,

Marcus

The paper needs to be snug in the tray, and when the paper tray is out you can see the feed roller hanging from the top. If the white plastic guide is missing or hanging down it won't feed, and if the roller is dirty it can't feed. If not broken, try cleaning the roller with a damp rag and see if that helps. Otherwise a shop repair.

The black exit rollers on top get slick from the paper and toner, they need to be cleaned with a damp rag. You hold the rag against them 1 at a time and open and close the front door so they will rotate while you hold the rag on them. Should help the paper exit.

plz post a picture!
(I guess you havent broken the paperfeeder because this is quite a huge metal part)

This is related to the paper feed roller:

Check encoder disc if it is stained with ink or broken (its the round foil disc which is fixed on one of the three white big gear wheels on the left hand side). It should turn around without any scratching sound!

Check if another gear wheel is broken (right hand side behind the purge /parking station). Here you will find the gear box which is shifted by print head (little white plastic coming out of the metal plate between purge station and absorber box)

Pull out the paper tray and try to turn the paper feed roller by hand. You can reach it when seeing from bottom without the tray.