General Ulysse 2.0 JTD (110 bhp) gear box - reverse sticks

[Tinfoil]

this morning I discovered that the reverse doesn't release when I pull the lever out of reverse. For some reason the lever (and the complete box for that matter) remains in reverse when I put it in first. Only when I move the lever to the far right side, through neutral, will it go back into first. Is anyone familiar with this problem and can it be fixed, or is it something I just have to get used to?

 

[Tinfoil]

update: the garage replaced all of the cables and bars in the gear box and it now works quite well again. It still occasionally refuses to come out of reverse when I move the lever too quickly.
Just the other day I found a tear in the white plastic bus around the actual gear lever; does anyone recognise this as a typical weakness? My garage checked another Ulysse they have and discovered an almost identical tear ...

 

[avionista]

I thought it might be useful to add my experience of a similar problem when moving from reverse gear to first gear.

My car is a 2003 Ulysse 2.0 JTD with a 5 SP gearbox. On occasion, after reversing from my drive, parking space, etc, I have found the plastic lever, which is pulled up by your fingers to allow reverse gear to be engaged, does not spring back down when the gear lever is moved back into neutral. When this happens, you end up back in reverse when trying to engage first gear.

I removed the gear knob (it seems to be just glued to the end of the gear lever) and lubricated the reverse sliding lever. This cured the problem only for a month or so. I have since discovered that the alignment of the knob affects whether the reverse lever sticks, or not. Provided the lines of the gear diagram on the knob are vertical/horizontal, the reverse lever doesn't stick. If the knob turns slightly anti-clockwise on the end of the gear lever, it sticks. To be honest, it is only a minor irritant, because I now automatically flick the reverse lever down with my fingers as I move the gear lever from reverse to neutral.

I am reluctant to use a stronger adhesive (eg epoxy) to fix my gear knob in position in case I ever have need to remove it for maintenance reasons in future.