What Lyle suggested didn't work. But this is what did work upto UC7E...

I had to revert to the original database and ubercart module (some 7B modules and some 7C - maybe a snapshot of bazaar?) directory. I then upgraded to Drupal 5.5. Then one by one I upgraded to each new version of ubercart - running update.php as well. Everything started working from the get go (7C). And continued to work upto 7E. But at UC8 the uc_quotes stop giving quotes. I did do what Lyle suggested (above) - nada.

If anyone has any other luck please let me know...