1994 Acclaim - Everything going to heck at once!

Hi there everyone! Let me preface this by saying I'm the stereotypical dumb blonde when it comes to car talk. I am however willing to listen to advice and at least try to understand the problem more so I can relay it to the mechanic or someone else who might fix it more cheaply!

Ok. My car for over a year now has had this acceleration-fuel problem that no one including mechanics can seem to figure out. Until recently it would show up by working all right while driving then it starts going "ugh ugh ugh" kind of jerking, and feeling like it isn't getting enough gas. Nine times out of ten the check engine light will come on, and then oddly enough it seems to or at least feels like it is performing better. If I stop somewhere and turn the car off, it does the same thing on the return trip.

Maintenence history includes a good tune up about a year ago, new exhaust, and within the last two weeks a new battery,alternator, fuel filter and a fuel leak fixed. The mechanic did say that the fuel pump was "weak", so unfortunately I take that to mean that it is going bad in a hurry. Now, since he did all that to the car however, it feels like the accelerator goes down hard, then it will free up or have a lot of play in it, then hard again.... and the car is still going "ugh ugh ugh" and lerching along. The check engine light comes on a lot sooner than it used to and the problem seems worse than it ever was before. Also it seems like if I try flooring it (when I get mad!) it will stick in a certain gear, sound like it's revving and not want to shift. I did just today clean out the throttle body with carb cleaner and a toothbrush since I had read that somewhere and it seemed (and was) very easy to do, but it made no difference.

I read a lot on the forums and most of it is over my head. There seem to be so many things that it "could be", I just wish there was more I could have someone do to try and remedy the problem before I either take a sledge to the car or leave it sit beside the road with a "Free" sign attached to the window! Thanks in advance for any and all money-saving assistance.

Have you tried retrieving any trouble codes? Without starting the engine, turn the key switch to on/off/on/off/on and watch the check engine light. If
codes are stored the light should flash. For example a code 22 would be two flashes with a short pause followed by two flashes. If multiple codes are set
there should be a slightly longer pause between codes followed by a code 55 indicating that retrieval procedure is finished. Hope this helps. I have a generic list of codes if you retrieve any.