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I've bought a second hand mountain bike and when I press the front mechanical brake the front wheel pulls to one side so could someone tell me what I need to check. When I removed the wheel I noticed the 2 springs on the quick release was on one side. I've also noticed that the disc brake is slightly loose so if you brake disc can be moved back and forth
Does it pull to the right?
Also do you mean that when stationary with the brake applied the bike can be moved back and forth slightly or that the disk (the actual rotor) moves?
QR should be lever, spring, fork, axle, fork, spring, nut with the narrow ends of the spring facing in. On a front wheel it's normal to have the lever on the opposite side to the disk. It shoud be tightened so it's starting to feel firm with the lever at 90 degrees and so the lever leaves an imprssion on your hand when you push it closed.
The rotor (disk) should be tight on the hub - there are 2 types of fixing, either a 6-bolt or centrelock. 6-bolt as the name implies uses 6 individual bolts to hold the disk on, tighten these in a 'star' pattern - they need to be firm but not over-tight. For centrelock you need an adaptor to tighten them so may need to ask your LBS for that.
Hub bearing
As above, it sounds like the bearings in the hub. The brake rotor should not be loose, that's a serious safety issue. Take it to a decent bike shop and have them sort it out.
Could also be the headset bearing collapsing. Whatever the cause it’s one that needs sorting.
Springs on the quick release will have no effect so you can discount those, they exist purely to move the ends of the QR away from the dropouts once it's undone creating a equal(ish) gap so that it's easy to get the wheel in and out of the frame.
Also do you mean that when stationary with the brake applied the bike can be moved back and forth slightly or that the disk (the actual rotor) moves?
I had the same question. The first (a tiny amount of forward and back motion with the disc applied) is normal, the rotor moving is not normal.
with front brake pulled tight, bush back and forth on the handle bars and tell us what moves.
If the wheel pulls to the right what does it mean. When I said the brake rotor was loose it was because the 6 screws was loose which I have now tightened.