The tie rod ends on the steering rack won't take grease with a manual grease gun pumped up several times, so I took one off to examine. The zerks are clear, and probing into the threaded grease zerk hole they're not bottoming out. With the rod end on the spindle, loose from the rack I can work the joint around, but when I put max pressure on the grease gun it's like it freezes in place. Take the pressure away and it moves around freely, but they're tight. These ends were sold in early 2009 so likely made 15 years ago, if not more, but they put some grease inside so I can't see corrosion being an issue.

Since I can work them around freely (with some effort) I decided the best path forward was to fill the rubber cap with grease, reinstall them and run them for a while, thinking that with some use they will "loosen up" enough that they'll accept grease. When I Google "tie rod end won't take grease" it seems that it's not so unusual? I've never had a new tie rod end that wouldn't take grease, but I can't see that my approach has any fatal flaws. Thoughts/experiences?