[Chester Stone]

Todd, perhaps I can help. As to the gauges, the one showing 100-230 is for the generator water temperature, the one 0-100 shows the generator oil pressure and the other one is an hour meter which seems to show a little over 2,000 hours. In your second photo, the merge switch is used to temporarily combine the voltage from both the engine and house batteries. The indicator knob seems to be pointing in the wrong direction and this should be resolved because you may be combining the batteries or have isolated the house batteries. The air compressor switch probably turns on the auxiliary air compressor and should be on when the engine is not running. The other one switches the source of 220 ac power between shore power and the generator. Later model Newells have an automatic switch system that handles this chore. When you are trying to run the generator, this switch should be set to aux. I am quite certain that you should not have to keep the starter engaged until the generator starts to produce power. The generator should start in a few seconds and then run for about two minutes before power is evident. I am doubtful that a bypass switch is the answer to your problem. I would first be sure that the source switch is set to auxiliary, which is the generator, then that the merge switch knob issue is resolved and if it still does not start, I would look for a defective run solonoid on the generator. Hope I have helped.