Originally Posted by mozark

Your setup sounds too complicated to me.

It's simple to wire it as if it were in a vehicle. Battery cable from positive post to the hot lug on the starter. Negative post to ground the engine. 14 ga wire from the hot terminal on the starter to one terminal of a simple push button start switch. 14 ga wire from the other push button terminal to the ignition terminal on the starter. You can then jump current from the hot terminal on the push button to a toggle switch for the glow plugs, and/or any other function or gauge you want.

I have a Cummins 4BTA set up this way at the moment. Switches and gauges are in a scrap of 1/4" plywood set up as an instrument cluster. Flip a switch to send power to the lift pump and press the start button. No glow plugs, but you need 12v to the lift pump shut-off relay in order to run.

Michael