Steering Play tightens up when warm

I have an 87 XJ with the gm tilt steering column and have kind of strange issue. When its cold, it has a lot of play in it and is really annoying to drive but after driving it for a little bit, the steering tightens up and acts like a normal lifted vehicle gearbox steering. I have tried tightening the box which made it steer very unpredictably and still had play. After that I just replaced everything, it has a new box, new pump, new lines, the only thing that I didn't replace was the steering shaft itself but the u joint feels ok. I'm kind of at a loss at this point. It's too warm right now, but hopefully tomorrow, I will check if it is turning the shaft when it has play or not and maybe narrow it down.

Lifted? How big? What size/type tires?

How much play cold vs hot? I assume you mean you can turn the wheel more until wheels react.

There's a funky "u joint" inside the GM column that provides the tilt. Does your steering wheel flop around a bit when the engine is off? Like tilting side to side as well as up and down. Try pulling and pushing it too.

It's an older 6-6.5" Rusty's long arm with 35" general grabber x2's. It has about somewhere around an 1/8 steering play when cold and slowly tightens up to where you would think it should be all the time. Just checked and the steering shaft turns immediately with the steering wheel, so whatever the problem is in the box or the pressure in the pump. Hesitant to try to tighten the box after the old box turned into very unpredictable steering. Maybe I just tightened that one too much though..

What kind of box? The general parts store remans (aka cardone) are notorious for being junk out of the box. Based on your description I'd bet that box is bad

Yeah its a generic parts reman, it has done this on a few different boxes, both xj and durango boxes and I have used these ones on other jeeps with success, doesn't really mean anything though. I used to work in parts and yeah a lot of the generic stuff sucks out of the box. The lares I have heard are supposed to be killer reman parts though if I can ever find one I can justify spending the extra on. Luckily this is mostly a toy, I just like being able to use it on the road whenever I want to without too much compromise.