Cars jumpy at 2500-3000rpm range

So. my car has always been a little jumpy in 3rd gear. not much, but noticable. i usually drop it out of overdrive when slowing down an leave it that way until i reach my speed, then put it back into overdrive. but i drop it out of overdrive when goin up steep hills an i could notice that the car was jumpy, an i didnt know why. ive always thought its prolly just back pressure since the rpms are higher when od is off. but the past month ive been noticing accoassional jumps when cruisin in 4th at 55mph. so i got curious. so tonight i drove it an it was pretty jumpy in 3rd, an noticible in 4th. as the night went on the worse it was gettin. so on the way home tonight on the last turn to get to where i live. i was takin off from a stop sign. not getting on it at all, driving like a grandma. an i cant remember if it was in 1st or 2nd (prolly 1st) but it jumped really bad. it shaked me back an forth in my seat. so i was thinkin now that its not the 3rd an fourth gears, it does it in all gears in this rpm range. so my dad said it could be spark plug or wires. but the plugs were changed a year ago, an wires about 2 yrs ago. so he said try out some fuel injector cleaner, but i did that like 6 months ago.... so ill try that out tomarrow. i called up a friend of mine an he said its probably the fuel pump.. the last time that was changed was well over 2 years ago. do u think it can be the fuel pump? i know its a pin to even get to.... heres another thing i thought about. over a month ago, some idiot pulled out right in front of me when i was goin 55. so i slowed down, but jumped in the other lane. i then floored it, an so did the guy, i was easin by him, an we got up to about 90 until i passed the sunbitch. an i just missed a head on by 100 yards. but back to the point. when i was floorin it, somewhere there in the middle of it, there was a real loud squeel. im not sure what it was, but i hope i didnt mess up my trans. but i dont think that was it, so what do u guys think could be causing this??.. seems like the engine to me, not the trans.

edit: i jus remembered that in the past 6 months or so, i have noticed an occassional smell of gas. it would last for a day, then completely go away. this has only happened 2-3 times tho.

yea, its probably something related to the engine.

Even if you've changed out your plugs a year ago and wires 2 years ago, it's still a possibility that it could be the cause. Might want to change out your fuel filter as well if you haven't changed that out. If you have ECS, the cars for some reason have known to jump due to a bad ECS module, and some have just unplugged it and it solved their problems. Somehow the ECS is tapped into some wires that deals with your ignition or something like that. If its none of those, you might want to look into new coil packs or a new PTU.

the check engine doesnt come on?

alright, i just got back from driving it. changed the filter and it drives a whole lot better. it has a lot more power than what it did. it still jumps a little, but nowhere as much as b4. im hoping that if theres a small clog left in the lines, that the fuel system cleaner will clean it out. ill give it a week an see if it is completely gone.