2000 Ls Engine Trouble? Please Help

I have a 2000 Lincoln LS with around 74k. My problem is when I get to between 40-60 mph it starts to jerk or hesitate somewhat. I went to Detroit earlier this week and at one point the engine light came on for 15 seconds or so and then went off.It seemed to me that a couple times during the trip at around 80 it was kinda doing the same thing.Does anyone know what this may be? Is there a code key that I can get to give me a diagnostic as to why the engine light came on? I am not a mechanically inclined person and know very little about cars.At first I thought it was the transmission slipping but it has been going on for awhile maybe 6 weeks I would have thought the tranny would have went by now.
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have no idea what is going on.

Thanks in advance.

I'd suspect either the fuel pump or ignition coils. You can go to an Auto Zone and have them pull the codes for free, but it sounds like you'll be paying for repair one way or the other...

sounds like a bad coil. If the CEL did not stay on then chances are they wont be able to see the code becasue it is in a pending status.

If you do not have the mechanical aptitude you say you lack you would be better served by taking it to the dealer. The coils at the dealer run about 70 dollars IIRC. but you can buy them from fordpartsnetwork.com much cheaper and have them install those.

Both the V8 and the V6 require some significant effort to get to all the coils so you might consider replacing them all or just have the delaer troubleshoot to the component and replace the one or two that may be bad and risk having another go bad tomorrow, next week, month...

This is a component that is known to fail frequently for a lack of better terms.

While they are doing the coils you might want to consider having them swap the plugs to. Again buy your own as they charge about 17 bux a plug.

So in your guys opinion it isnt the tranny.Thats a relief.

I have had a ton of tranny problems and none have thrown the CEL. If it was flashing then you can almost rest assured it is coil or plug related.

Problem I had with the fuel pumps didnt even mimic the miss fire... all it did is loose combustion and shutdown.