I have Ubuntu 16.04.3 installed and boots up okay except the updater fails, with error; "package operation failed". So how do I remove and re-install the updater to fix this issue?

Removing and reinstalling the updater is likely not the solution. It is more likely that the error message from the updater is a symptom of a problem with particular package (s).

I would suggest you use apt-get from the command line. That is likely to produce much more informative error messages. Here's Ubuntu's article on apt-get; see the section on "Maintenance Commands." https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto

If you get more informative errors, post them to this thread, being sure to surround them with "code" tags, which become available when you click the "Go Advanced" button beneath the compose post window.

Okay this issue is now solved by entering those commands for apt-get found in that suggested web site; (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto). So now the software updater runs with no errors and got all the updates in the terminal with; apt-get update, and apt-get upgrade. So thanks for some help.