Do you know about the Ford Escort Owners forums: www.feoa.net? Its a little more trouble to join up, but worth it. They have many subforums:
www.feoa.net/modules.php?name=Forums including one for the 1st generation Escorts. Once you have joined (its free) and are logged in you can do really good searches. You can search just within one forum for instance, and for various combinations of words. Thats how I found the postings that I quoted from.
There is a Service Manual set on ebay.com right now for the 87 Escort/Tempo/Topaz, ebay # 400018559822. And no doubt there will be a set for the 88 Escorts eventually. If you dont have a paypal account at ebay, this seller also accepts credit card payments.