I just bought a 99 Ford Escort ZX2 cool. I have driven it about 150 miles and started it several times with no problems, 98K miles. Now, it is dead in my driveway. Cranks fine, and the fuel pump is operating with pressure verified at the rack by lossening the bleeder valve and watching it squirt while cranking. Spark has been verified by putting a timing light at the connector instead of a spark plug wire. Also, my research tells me that the computer senses spark before allowing the fuel pump to run. All fuses have been checked, I found 2 or 3 related to the fuel injector. I do not suspect timing belt because it was supposedly just changed, I actually looked at it when I purchased it and it looked fine. No amount of starting fluid in the intake will cause it to start or even fire. Is there a Fuel injector relay that could be a cause? I have looked in Haynes, no mention of it. I noticed that the Tach is dead while cranking, could it be a crankshaft sensor? I bought a code reader, but it comes up zero codes. Can the sensor read the codes without the engine running? I noticed that the Tach does not inidcate anything while cranking. Does yours? If so, maybe I have a bad crankshaft sensor.
Anybody been down this road?