I have a 97 escort that has a miss fire on cylinder #3 , I used a diagnostic hand held to determine this... I replaced the plugs and wires, but still no go on #3. Any suggestion on which way to go next???

Welcome to AF!!

Check the wire to the injector. It is also possible that the injector is going bad and may need to be replaced. You may want to try changing the injector to another cylinder to see if the misfire moves. If it does you have the culprit. If not then the wiring may be the culprit.

Also the connectors sometimes don't seat properly. Coat them with dielectric grease and reinstall and see what happens. Good Luck!

Did you verify that #3 is the misfiring cylinder, or did you verify that #3 is not producing spark?

If you narrowed it down as the cylinder that is missing, check if it has spark. If you don't have spark, check the wire and the control unit.
If you do have spark, do a compression check of the cylinder to test for leaks.

Thanks for the advice..anyway checked the spark and found very weak. I replaced the coil pack and the did the trick, the car is running fine.

Soulds like the head will have to come of. I just did one. Cly 3 had a burt valve. You will have to do a leak down test to check.