I used to have an Escort many years ago with a CVH engine.
The auto-choke was notorious for failing.
Mine started to play up by not resetting to cold start after it cooled down, and a light tap with some wood "released" it.
Many people changed them for manual choke.
The device is simply a spring that returned the choke to normal mix setting when it warmed up from it's water supply. When it cooled back down it reset the choke to a rich cold start setting.
I replaced mine with a service kit and it worked fine until I sold the car.
