Replaced original DeLorean fuel accumulator

Back in 2020, I got together with several local DeLorean owners for a tech session. We were bouncing ideas off one another on how we've approached various issues with our cars and future issues we wanted to tackle. One of mine happened to be my hard starting problem that was introduced when I replaced my original fuel lines back in 2016. It would run really rough for a while when cold starting, but would just crank endlessly when trying to start the car when it was hot. 

One of the other owners suggested that it would be good to replace the fuel accumulator as its job is to maintain pressure in the fuel line after the car is shut off so as to prevent the fuel in the lines from vaporizing, creating a vapor lock, or hot start problem.

Pictures of the accumulator and a search of the stack of service records I have, confirmed that the fuel accumulator was original. 

The white material around one of the fuel hoses above is what is exposed after the black rubber layer wears off. The black hose on the left was what it used to look like. I couldn't believe how far gone the hose on the right had become. I ordered a new fuel accumulator and hoses back in May of 2020, but just got around to installing it a year later.

I had heard that this job was a bit difficult, but I found several resources that helped me do things in the right order, including this PDF. I had my DeLorean on jack stands in the front and in the back so it was high enough off the ground for me to comfortably work on it from underneath. This job definitely cannot be done any other way than from under the car. You'll also want to wear safety glasses as debris may fall into your face as you work under the car. You'll also want a small bucket to catch the fuel that will drain out of the lines once you have them disconnected.

As I dove it, I first tried to loosen the nut on the hard line coming into the accumulator with a 17mm stubby wrench. The nut was so tight that I had to get a breaker bar on the end of the stubby wrench to get enough torque to break it loose. That was probably the most difficult part of the whole job. Then I was then able to remove the four 10mm bolts holding the retaining strap. So with the strap out of the way and the nut off of the hard line, I discovered that the hard line was not budging from the elbow fitting. I had to wiggle the accumulator and fight it to finally break free the hard line from the elbow connector, even though the nut was out of the way. I guess 40 years being together made them so they didn't want to be separated. 

Once I had the hard line separated, I was able to pull the fuel accumulator through the hole in the frame so that it was hanging down, shown above. I then tried to remove the fuel lines that were still connected to the accumulator. Where they both connect near the top of the frame, there weren't clamps securing them on, but they just slipped onto the fittings, which I thought meant that they would be easy to get off. I was very much mistaken. As much pulling and twisting that I did, it did nothing except stretch the original plastic fuel line that is under the rubber and white layers. The old line was so old that it had no flexibility left to be able to pull it off. I ended up having to get a box cutter blade and I sliced the line down the fitting to finally get them to let loose. Here's one of the lines after I got it out:

 

 

As I worked to get both of the lines out, virtually any remaining rubber coating on the lines disintegrated in my hand and either fell into my face, or fell into the frame tunnel. After I got the accumulator out, I swapped over the elbow fitting for the hard line from the old to the new accumulator and hooked up the new rubber fuel hoses and attached the new black accumulator pad where the retaining strap holds onto the accumulator. Below, you can see the old and new parts next to each other, as well as the stubby wrench that is a must-have to do this job more easily:

 

Putting it all back in the car was pretty straightforward. The worst part was just trying to keep the accumulator in the right position while I tried to get the four 10mm bolts started on the retaining strap. Before doing that, I hooked up the new rubber lines to their respective lines at the top of the frame, and tightened their new hose clamps. I also hooked up the hard line to the elbow fitting, but do not tighten the hard line nut yet. You just need to get it started so it helps get everything into position.

Next, you need to reattach the retaining strap, making sure the accumulator is in the right position, then tighten them down the four 10mm bolts. Once the retaining strap is completely secure, you can tighten down the hard line nut. I once again found it difficult to get enough torque on the hard line nut with just my hands, so used the breaker bar to make sure it was nice and snug. I then made sure the new rubber fuel lines weren't rubbing on any of the shift linkage and moved one of them out of the way with a zip tie.

 

 

I snapped a photo into the frame tunnel to see how dirty it was and was glad to see it was virtually rust free. The debris you see at the bottom includes much of the remains of the original rubber coating on the fuel line that was just the cloth coating. I did what I could to get that cleaned from out of the frame tunnel, but didn't worry too much about it. The only way to visually inspect this part of the frame is to do something like this with a camera. 

 

I had a delay in testing for leaks as I also decided to put in a new, modern fuel pump at the same time, but I was happy and relieved that when it came time to fire up the car again, there weren't any leaks and my issues I was having with the car not wanting to start have disappeared. Here are a few more pics of the final install:

In all, because of the extra time it took for me to figure out how to loosen the hard line nut, get the hard line loose from the elbow fitting, and getting the original rubber lines off of their fittings, it took me much longer than the one hour estimate that I had heard it would take. So if you're going to tackle this project, learn from my issues and you will hopefully get it done in less time. I don't know the exact amount of time that it took me, but I estimate it was about 2.5 hours.