That was usually an excuse guys used who forgot to remove the "hidden" main body screws in the middle of the carb and "warped" the main body trying to pry it off with a screwdriver. Funny thing the TQ was actually developed as a performance-oriented response to the Quadrajet, it just happened to get finished when emissions started to get going and ended up having a bunch of junk attached to it to make it run better with super lean mixtures and EGR.
