Here's how the whole climb/accel thing works.
* = multiplicaton
d[]/dt = differentiation operator, e.g. df/dt = first derivative of f with respect to time.
t = time
E(t) = energy as a function of time.
P(t) = excess power as a function of time.
v(t) = TAS as a function of time.
h(t) = height as a function of time.
m = mass
g = gravitational constant
Total energy of the airplane, assuming the mass of the aircraft is not changing.
E(t) = 0.5 * m * v(t) * v(t) + m * g * h(t)
P(t) is defined as dE(t)/dt. The definition of power is the rate of change of energy with respect to time.
Therefore:
P(t) = d( 0.5 * m * v(t) * v(t) + m * g * h(t) )/dt
P(t) = m * v(t) * dv(t)/dt + m * g * dh(t)/dt
dv(t)/dt is defined as acceleration.
dh(t)/dt is defined as rate of climb.
Assuming level flight, dh(t)/dt = 0
P(t) = m * v(t) * dv(t)/dt + m * g * 0
P(t) = m * v(t) * dv(t)/dt
dv(t)/dt = P(t) / (v(t) * m)
That is, at any instant in time, acceleration in level flight is equal to excess power divided by the product of mass and TAS.
Assuming constant speed flight, dv(t)/dt = 0
P(t) = m * v(t) * 0 + m * g * dh(t)/dt
dh(t)/dt = P(t)/(m*g)
That is, at any instant in time, the sustained rate of climb is equal to excess power divided by the product of mass and the gravitational constant.
The only things I used to get this are the definition of energy, the rules of calculus, and the assumption that g and m are constant. Even if you assume g and m are not constant and crunch the numbers, the contribution of those variations is vanishingly small for the type of aircraft we are talking about.