Stick the shim loosely between the door and the jamb to hold the door in position when you drive out the upper hinge pin. Then bend the pin slightly with a firm whack. Reinsert the pin and check ...

Q: The heavy door that leads ... they don’t work right out of the package. The last type of self-closing hinge isn’t really a replacement hinge at all. It replaces the pin in the hinge.

For doors that swing closed or open on their own, Popular Mechanics recommends bending the hinge pin a bit with a hammer (pictured at top-left in our little matrix picture mash-up): Rather than ...