Thanks for the reply. The reason I'm going with the full loom is that the Escort is a bare she'll so no existing wiring whatsoever so I figured I may as well use this rather than start again from scratch, also I wasn't sure if the car needed body controll sensors etc to allow it to start.

As for the dash clocks, they light up with everything showing as they should but it's only the odometer and oul light that dim when I turn the ignition switch right round to "start".

As for the ECU, the wires I'm speaking about do have M6 rings but they're right next to each other?

What I've done is hook up all the earth points to a large bolt, tightened them all together and sprayed them with contact spray, hooked a jump lead from that to the negitavite on the battery and still no starter engaging

Where is the start inhabit relay located, is that realistically a potential culprit?