Catalina upper gudgeon
I bet that your upper gudgeon is affixed in the same fashion as on my C-22. Since I replaced my gudgeons and pintles this year, I can tell you this. The upper gudgeon screws (or bolts) are probably screwed into a tapped brass (or bronze) plate that is held in place by a pile of fiberglass resin on the inside of the transom where you cannot see it between the cockpit liner and the transom. All I think you need do is unscrew the screws (or bolts) and the gudgeon will come off. Installation of a new gudgeon is merely screwing the new gudgeon back onto the transom and into the hidden brass (bronze) plate. I think you can try to take off one of the screws and then see if it will screw back in. If this works, then I think you can try the removal process on the other two screws to confirm the method I describe for the upper gudgeon's attachment. Catalina Direct should have replacement gudgeons. They also have a beefed up 1/2 inch gudgeon with a deriline (?) insert. I think you should consider replacing both your gudgeons with this beefed up gudgeon. On the lower gudgeon, you can just use large fender washers as backing plates. I upgraded my C-22 from 3/8 to 1/2 inch pintles and gudgeons with the deriline (?) insert from Catalina Direct. While I am pleased with the result, getting there was a nightmare. First, I have the old four bolt pattern gudgeons and the Catalina Direct 1/2 inch upgrade with their four bolt pattern did not match my old four bolt pattern. It took many expensive titanium drill bits and hours to drill larger holes into the gudgeons to get them to align into the holes in my transom. Note I had to do this due to the brass (bronze?) tapped plate inside the transom that holds the upper gudgeon screws. Next, the pintles were tricky to get onto the rudder with the proper spacing since they have different holes than the original 3/8 pintles and larger straps. When everything was assembled, there was a small gap between the bottom of the upper pintle and its gudgeon. This was a consequence of the new gudgeons and pintles not going onto the exact same position as the old gudgeons and pintles. Some persuasion with an 8 ounce rubber mallet by knocking the lower pintle upward and the upper pintle downward rectified the situation to the point where the gap is negliable.
