Troubles starting

[danmdevries]

I'm having trouble starting my 'scort. It doesn't seem to happen in any particular environmental variable, humididty high/low, snow/rain, dry/wet, cold/hot... anything. Sometimes it will start after about two cranks, other times it takes about 5 seconds of cranking, sometimes it takes 3-5 trys of cranking at about 5 sec each. It always starts, just doesn't like to on occasion. When the engine's cold, i have the problem. When the engine's warm I have the problem. I haven't been able to figgure out any sort of trigger as to why it's doing this. It's been doing it since i bought it about a month ago, but the previous owner said she never had any problems with it. Now, she had not driven it since it was totaled in late October. Could it be something to do with the fuel pump? Fuel filter? This is my first Ford, so I'm not sure exactly how everything's set up on these cars. It's a 1995 LX with 62000 miles when I bought it, now I'm at 68736 as of when I got on the computer. I drive alot on the expressway between Gary IN and Chicago IL, average speed of 75mph. I used to have problems with a few of my old cars when I would run speeds over 85 on the highway because (I think) the engine was revving too high for too long. The escort sits at about 3300 rpm at 75, could this be a problem? I've never had one of these little 4 bangers, so I don't know what normal rev zone is. On my friend's civic, he's running 4800 at 80mph, so I couldn't imagine the high rpms would be too damaging, it's made for it right?

[Fully-Loaded]

It might be fuel, it might be spark. Most likely it's the spark. Pull off the plug wires individually and check for any signs that they might need to be replaced. Pull out the spark plugs and check those as well. It also couldn't hurt to pull off the distributor cap and check for wear. It's an older car, just perform a basic tune-up. Plugs, plug wires and a cap & rotor don't cost much, and it couldn't hurt anything.