[12Ounce]

I believe those soft-metal plugs will just yield, if you can twist enough on the tie rod nut. (Years ago, those things were made out of lead, I believe.) I have also drilled them, but later learned to just twist them. Some replacement tie-rod kits come with the plugs (... but some may not). I remember the plugs being less than 1/4" long. I always added Loc-tite to the rack threads for a bit of extra security.

It's been a number of years since I have worked on inner tie-rods, so I'm a bit "dated" on the subject.