From memory the steering damper was deleted at some point in 1943 (probably an economy measure) but reinstated for 1944 (probably a safety issue). But I don't know the actual dates. Ron
WM20 78092 which is a 43 model according to the papers is fitted with a steering damper if that is any help.
I would have imagined the actual contract specification would stipulate weather a damper was to be fitted or not.
From the war time photos I have I can tell you that the last photo of a BSA with a damper knob is a BSA with tank number C5130007 (WM20 96607). The first one without a damper knob is a BSA with tank number C5207500 (WM20 96800) so in between these two they stopped using the damper knob. Unfortunately there is still a gap between these two numbers so I need more war time photos from this period to narrow it down a little more. Keep sending these photos with readable tank numbers.
The C52075XX is the BSA with the sleeping solder on it with the bullet hole in the toolbox. The last two digits are not visible and I probably shouldn't have put 00 there but instead XX and the same for the frame number of course.