Thanks to all of your advice, I bought two new accumulators, and installed them last night. The change in the ride is remarkable, making me wonder just what the state of them has been for some time. It appears that the rear shocks are undamaged, hallelujah!
If you don't mind a couple of hours underneath the car, this is a relatively easy job.
You will absolutely need an 11mm line wrench - I bought some Craftsmans for this and future jobs. Speaking of the 11mm fitting, do NOT re-attach this until the nut that is directly underneath it has been tightened! You will find that to get this nut off (with a socket, anyway) you will need to undo the 11mm fitting. So, to get it back on, you should do it before re-attaching that fitting. Makes sense, but I forgot and it wasn't fun.
The 17mm fitting may come off easily (one did) or it might not. There is another fitting down that line (also 177mm, I think, but you'll need an open end) that should easily come off if you are worried about damaging the fitting.
Bleeding the hydraulic line was accomplished by the use of the bleeder fitting on the valve. However, since the accumulators were filled with oil as a result of the failure of the diaphragms, I was bathed anyway once I took off the fittings. Having a few cups of kitty litter handy will probably help, along with lots of shop towels.
After some research out there, I went to the local airport and got some "5606 fluid" for about $6 per quart. Using the bleeder valve to flush the system required a couple more trips underneath, but did the job PDQ. Since the pump feeds from underneath the Hydraulic container, I just pumped until the bottom was mostly visible, then poured in a couple quarts of the new fluid and kept bleeding. The 5060 is red, so it was easy to see when the old fluid was flushed.
Also, you CAN tell if your accumulators are bad. Visually, the new ones had a metal piece that was pushed up all the way to the outlet. The old ones did not. I also gently inserted a screwdriver into the old ones, and it went to the bottom. Obviously, on the new ones, it didnt' go in at all.
Thanks again to all - maybe some of this will help the next one.
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