Electrical gremloins??

[Moriarty]

It had been running fine, and I had been using the lights without issue.

It was only the other day that I went to take it out and when it didn't start on the first crank, discovered that it was dead on the second attempt. I initially assumed the battery was dead since I hadn't started it for a week or two and didn't remember to hook up the trickle charger. It was only after the problem persisted the next day after charging that I realized something more was going on.

There have been a couple instances in the fairly recent past where I've turned the key and gotten nothing, but then a second turn and things worked fine.

At this point, it seems like I must have a short in the lights wiring which is triggering the circuit breaker?

It's mostly just the weather getting colder that has changed.

I hadn't checked the heater all this time, so I just did that now. It works the same as the radiator fan - i.e. no problems, light toggle doesn't affect it, does not require key.

I also double checked the brake lights and turn signals work, but all go dead when the lights are toggled.

While testing, everything started working fine at one point. I was testing to see if the radiator or heater fans cut out when turning the headlights on. I first turned on the radiator fan, then turned on the lights and they worked and everything else worked. I thought maybe it had fixed itself, but after toggling the lights on and off about five times, the problem returned.

When I first encountered this issue, I crawled up under the dash to check connections and didn't find anything loose - though I don't really know what to look for beyond that.