It's a while since I went from 7.3.4 to 8.1.7 - I remember having a few problems something like this. They were all cases where the code was "wrong" in some way, but 7.3.4 made a reasonable assumption - which worked! - so no visible problems. Vsn 8 was more strict and I had to correct the code - I guess 9i is just as (more?) fussy.
To correct your error, you must prefix the ambiguous column names with either the table name or the alias. Can't say more than that without seeing the details.
"The power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous" - Gibbon, quoted by R.P.Feynman