Chalk up another dead water pump. Mine puked on me last Friday on the way home from work, argh! But thanks to wonder of the web and the information on this site, it was pretty easy to quickly determine the cause of the overheating problem I had.
I ordered up the DuroPro water pump from NAPA [$50.99], new 180 thermostat, ECT sensor, water pump belt, and a jug o coolant for around $100. Parts are do in today, so tonight I should get to tear into it and hopefully get it back on the road again tonight as well.
The real kicker was that I had just bought the car the day before. So hopefully the headgasket did not get taken out as well, otherwise the car gets sold as is and I hang on to my Escort GT w/165k on the clock and still kicking strong!
FWIW, I've got a '95 Contour SE with the 2.5 V-6 and auto trans.
