We'd have to see the air cleaner element, and the way the air cleaner housing goes together, to see what has happened there. One thing you might try is assembling the air cleaner housing without the element and see how it runs, then put the element back in without changing anything else and see if it changes. Essentially my guess is either there is a way to assemble the housing incorrectly, and you've found it, or the element is blocked by dirt or damage. It is possible that the element was blocked all along, but the housing had been assembled loosely so it could still run, albeit badly. If that is what happened, when you assemble it correctly, the blocked element keeps the engine from running.
Pictures of the air cleaner housing and element would be useful in this thread not only to resolve the problem, but also because it is one of the features of that chonda that is quite different from Honda.
