Go ahead and drill as much slop as you need to get the rod inbedded. Once you have the halves trial fitted you can use epoxy slathered on the torque rod ends and some epoxy drizzled into the holes. After the epoxy sets, I like to make pin holes in the area surrounding the torque rod stubs and saturate the wood with thin CA....this really toughens up the wood. Use either epoxy or medium CA to apply some 2 oz cloth to encase the torque rod stubs in there good. I use a latex glove finger to smear the CA into the cloth. It sometimes helps to first mist the cloth with 3M77 if you are wrapping the cloth around an edge, but just barely mist the cloth or the glue wont penetrate the fibers and bond them to the wood well.
On medium to small sized models I use aluminum welding rod for joiners, select a bendable alloy. Use as thick a wire as you can stuff in there, just be sure to fiberglass it in.