well......something sure has worked....got the c-130 cfg editor on screen.....i select fleet and select variation comes up....i select that, and D:\fsx\Captain_Sim\130\variants\ pops up....after that nothing else seems to function, or i don't know how to add variants.....?...not back to square one, but doesn't seem too far from it  :)
there are three headings--- fleet preflight and tools...but...these headings are overlapped with the same headings in grey and not in the same location...and it's the grey ones that respond to a limited degree....whew!  too bad the people who designed the product couln't pipe in...