Equatorial bulge and tectonic plates It is well known that the Earth is not a sphere, but rather it bulges at the equator. Also it is well known that the Earth's crust is composed of 7 or 8 (depending on definition) major tectonic plates, which are able to move on top of the asthenosphere, the upper layer of the Earth's mantle.

Due to the equatorial bulge, it would seem as though plates near the equator should not be able to drift away from the equator, and plates away from the equator should not be able to drift near the equator, since they will not be of the right shape to fit over these portions of the Earth. So how are the plates able to drift to and from the equator when the surface of the Earth is shaped differently there?
The plates are not as rigid as you think. You seem to be imagining the situation as something like this: I boil an egg and take the shell off in pieces, but I can't take a piece of shell from the end and make it lay flat on the side of the egg. However, rock is not that rigid on scales of thousands of kilometres and millions of years (I don't think there exists any material which would be that rigid). Also, Earth's equatorial bulge is tiny relative to its diameter -- less than 50km. Tectonic plates move very slowly, and there is plenty of time for them to deform as they move.