diff --git a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZooKeeperWatcher.java b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZooKeeperWatcher.java
index 8f8025517a0..f7a21751eb2 100644
--- a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZooKeeperWatcher.java
+++ b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZooKeeperWatcher.java
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.CopyOnWriteArrayList;
 import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
-import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
 
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
@@ -38,7 +37,6 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HRegionInfo;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ZooKeeperConnectionException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.classification.InterfaceAudience;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.security.Superusers;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.EnvironmentEdgeManager;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.UserGroupInformation;
 import org.apache.zookeeper.KeeperException;
 import org.apache.zookeeper.WatchedEvent;
@@ -76,7 +74,7 @@ public class ZooKeeperWatcher implements Watcher, Abortable, Closeable {
   private RecoverableZooKeeper recoverableZooKeeper;
 
   // abortable in case of zk failure
-  protected final Abortable abortable;
+  protected Abortable abortable;
   // Used if abortable is null
   private boolean aborted = false;
 
@@ -87,10 +85,6 @@ public class ZooKeeperWatcher implements Watcher, Abortable, Closeable {
   // Used by ZKUtil:waitForZKConnectionIfAuthenticating to wait for SASL
   // negotiation to complete
   public CountDownLatch saslLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
-  
-  // Connection timeout on disconnect event
-  private long connWaitTimeOut;
-  private AtomicBoolean isConnected = new AtomicBoolean(false);
 
   // node names
 
@@ -173,9 +167,6 @@ public class ZooKeeperWatcher implements Watcher, Abortable, Closeable {
     this.identifier = identifier + "0x0";
     this.abortable = abortable;
     setNodeNames(conf);
-    // On Disconnected event a thread will wait for sometime (2/3 of zookeeper.session.timeout),
-    // it will abort the process if no SyncConnected event reported by the time.
-    connWaitTimeOut = this.conf.getLong("zookeeper.session.timeout", 90000) * 2 / 3;
     this.recoverableZooKeeper = ZKUtil.connect(conf, quorum, this, identifier);
     if (canCreateBaseZNode) {
       createBaseZNodes();
@@ -605,7 +596,6 @@ public class ZooKeeperWatcher implements Watcher, Abortable, Closeable {
   private void connectionEvent(WatchedEvent event) {
     switch(event.getState()) {
       case SyncConnected:
-        isConnected.set(true);
         // Now, this callback can be invoked before the this.zookeeper is set.
         // Wait a little while.
         long finished = System.currentTimeMillis() +
@@ -635,35 +625,7 @@ public class ZooKeeperWatcher implements Watcher, Abortable, Closeable {
 
       // Abort the server if Disconnected or Expired
       case Disconnected:
-        LOG.debug("Received Disconnected from ZooKeeper.");
-        isConnected.set(false);
-        
-        Thread t = new Thread() { 
-          public void run() {
-            long startTime = EnvironmentEdgeManager.currentTime();
-            while (EnvironmentEdgeManager.currentTime() - startTime < connWaitTimeOut) {
-              if (isConnected.get()) {
-                LOG.debug("Client got reconnected to zookeeper.");
-                return;
-              }
-              try {
-                Thread.sleep(100);
-              } catch (InterruptedException e) {
-                Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
-                break;
-              }
-            }
-            
-          if (!isConnected.get() && abortable != null) {
-            String msg =
-                prefix("Couldn't connect to ZooKeeper after waiting " + connWaitTimeOut
-                    + " ms, aborting");
-            abortable.abort(msg, new KeeperException.ConnectionLossException());
-          }
-          };
-        };
-        t.setDaemon(true);
-        t.start();
+        LOG.debug(prefix("Received Disconnected from ZooKeeper, ignoring"));
         break;
 
       case Expired:
diff --git a/hbase-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/TestZooKeeperWatcher.java b/hbase-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/TestZooKeeperWatcher.java
index 8071b032a2f..10a3816d2bd 100644
--- a/hbase-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/TestZooKeeperWatcher.java
+++ b/hbase-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/TestZooKeeperWatcher.java
@@ -22,23 +22,15 @@ import static org.junit.Assert.*;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 
-import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
-import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
-import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.Abortable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ZooKeeperConnectionException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.SmallTests;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.EnvironmentEdgeManager;
-import org.apache.zookeeper.WatchedEvent;
-import org.apache.zookeeper.Watcher;
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.junit.experimental.categories.Category;
 
 @Category({SmallTests.class})
 public class TestZooKeeperWatcher {
-  private final static Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(TestZooKeeperWatcher.class);
-  
+
   @Test
   public void testIsClientReadable() throws ZooKeeperConnectionException, IOException {
     ZooKeeperWatcher watcher = new ZooKeeperWatcher(HBaseConfiguration.create(),
@@ -64,44 +56,5 @@ public class TestZooKeeperWatcher {
 
     watcher.close();
   }
-  
-  @Test
-  public void testConnectionEvent() throws ZooKeeperConnectionException, IOException {
-    long zkSessionTimeout = 15000l;
-    Configuration conf = HBaseConfiguration.create();
-    conf.set("zookeeper.session.timeout", "15000");
 
-    Abortable abortable = new Abortable() {
-      boolean aborted = false;
-
-      @Override
-      public void abort(String why, Throwable e) {
-        aborted = true;
-        LOG.error(why, e);
-      }
-
-      @Override
-      public boolean isAborted() {
-        return aborted;
-      }
-    };
-    ZooKeeperWatcher watcher = new ZooKeeperWatcher(conf, "testConnectionEvent", abortable, false);
-
-    WatchedEvent event =
-        new WatchedEvent(Watcher.Event.EventType.None, Watcher.Event.KeeperState.Disconnected, null);
-
-    long startTime = EnvironmentEdgeManager.currentTime();
-    while (!abortable.isAborted()
-        && (EnvironmentEdgeManager.currentTime() - startTime < zkSessionTimeout)) {
-      watcher.process(event);
-      try {
-        Thread.sleep(1000);
-      } catch (InterruptedException e) {
-        Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
-      }
-    }
-
-    assertTrue(abortable.isAborted());
-    watcher.close();
-  }
 }