I had this SAME EXACT problem. I had to IGNORE the picture instructions, because i set it up exactly the way they had it pictured like 3 times, and it would not fit. To ensure it wasn't my own stupidity, i had my friend try and he had the same outcomes. I just loosely put it all together and sort of "finangled" and "finessed" the pipes by trying all sorts of combinations, truning this one, rotating that one...etc. until it fit right. Try this and see if it works, i got REALLY PISSED at first, because i thought the top quality Magnaflow was f'in me. But it all worked out.