Intake tube help; cant get it to fit right
 

Guys,

I love my 2002 Monte Carlo. I've had it for 5 years. But I HATE having to do anything at all with the air filter assembly because I can NEVER get the tube connecting the assembly to the throttle body to fit on correctly!

If I position it so it fits on the throttle body and clamp it down, then it won't meet up with the air cleaner assembly and will have a gap.

If I position it so that it clamps down on the air cleaner assembly, well then it won't meet up with the throttle body.

And if I pull on it to stretch it either way, it will just slide off.

What am I doing wrong here? Should I just clamp it down as tightly as I possibly can on one end and stretch it to meet up with the other? Any way I've ever tried it, there has always been an unsightly gap or the coupling is just BARELY on the air cleaner assembly.

From the pics, you can see that after I switched out my radiator yesterday, when putting the intake tube back on, I opted to install the tube so that the coupler is just BARELY on the cleaner assembly.

What am I doing wrong here and why in the world is this so difficult?!?

Thanks in advance.

Buz