Sounds like something is amiss in the vac harness or the vac reservoir. I would check every connection to make sure that the harness fitting isn't sucking itself onto a metal or plastic fitting causing a restriction in airflow required for the vac of the engine to operate the bypass valve.
Not sure about this. The bypass valve needs to see vacuum to activate the bypass. Any lack of vacuum from anomolies in the vac harness or vac reservoir would preclude the bypass from activating but wouldn't explain operating when it shouldn't.