The fan has two different ways to turn on in the Escort. Check the temperature gauge and its circuit as these control the fan when the engine heats up.
The fastest way to defrost a windshield is to turn the defrost vent on without heat or simply open the windows. Another option is to warm the inside of the car by turning the heater on.
Yes, the ac will run in the defrost position to dry the windshield.
Blown Heater Core - The heater fan blows past the heater core and if it has a hole in it your antifreeze ios being blown onto your windshield.
There is no heater control valve fitted on a Ford Escort. The heater matrix is directly connected to the engine's cooling system. To reach the heater matrix, you should remove all the facia unfortunately... :(
because is broken ? Because is cold outside ? Because you don't know how to turn the switch on ?
That means either you have air in your heater core or your heater core is being bypassed
They usaually fog up the inside of the windshield when defrost is used, soak the pass side floor with coolant and smell of anti freeze when operating heater in any mode.
Heater core leaking? Windshield seal leaking? Door seal leaking? Evaporator drain plugged?
watch your coolant level because antifreeze is probably leaking in your heater core, another indication of leaking heater core is greasy film on inside of your windshield and it makes it hard to defrost.
On my 1995 Ford Explorer when the defrost position is selected , and the temperature knob is set in the red area to get heated air to defrost the windshield , the A/C compressor will cycle on and off to help dehumidify the air, but the compressor ONLY cycles on and off in the DEFROST POSITION ( sorry if I'm misinterpretting your question )
The radiator cooling fans are turned on when the heater control is set to defrost.This makes for better and more effective defrosting of the windshield
Check behind the heat control panel to be sure that the vacuum hoses are all securely plugged into the control switch. As a safety measure on all cars, if you lose vacuum altogether, the default position for air direction is on defrost, so you can always see out of the windshield. Jake McCahn