Help-car repair advice needed

The 1.9L escort engine (more common one) was ford EDIS distributorless ignition. I don't know about the 1.8L escort GT DOHC engine.

The easiest way to check for the belt is just listen to it crank. If you're familiar with what the car sounds like, it will be really easy to hear the difference because it will be free spinning or maybe just hitting compression on one cylinder instead of all 4.

Mine was only firing on 2 cylinders. Now distributors caps any more. They're called something else, but do the same job. I had a Lynx, what a Lemon!