Car going tick, tick, tick, w/ lack of acceleration

[jbach36]

I was driving along today at a steady 45 mph when it felt like the car had "lack of forward acceleration" just for a quick second. I thought maybe it was just a bump in the road, but 10 seconds later, same thing.

The car did it a few more times, then I started hearing almost like an electronic noise as though it was made from the radio, of "tick, tick, tick". They were not evenly spaced out ticks, just tick....tick.............tick.....tick. I started thinking if the car was losing acceleration for a second, and I'm hearing ticks, might that be the fuel pump giving out? Does this car even have a fuel pump?

I was already going to be checking my fuel strainer in the tank this week anyways, I'm wondering if this is all part of the same problem.

1991 300d, 185k