Epson printer setup

[squareyes]

Hi all, 
I have tried just about everything, been to Epson site, who referred
me straight on to the cups site, no joy at all. http://localhost:631 
Admin disbled use gnome / system / config / printers been there a few
times :-)
I realise this is not really within the province of ubuntu, but have
been unable to get my old Epson LQ 500 dot matrix printer to work on any
variety of Linux. The old girl (if I may be politically incorrect) and I
have been around for quite a while together, and being able to use
tractor drive continuous paper, and very cheap ribbons is very nice.
I can get it to work with the driver on cups list, but will only print
left hand 2 thirds of the page, with very poor quality at that. setup
with 24 pin driver, print quality is good, but still only lefthand 2
thirds of document prints. Setup with generic driver, get continuous
pages of machine code, that can only be stopped by turning off printer,
uninstalling rinter and re-booting. If I don't re-boot it starts up
again as soon as I turn on the printer. Was ok in the winter, could use
the 30 feet of paper in the fire, but nice and warm now. 

If anyone could point me in the right direction (many have tried) it
would be much appreciated.
Take Care
Winton