diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 5086cda760c..409395eddef 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ Bug Fixes
 * SOLR-2275: fix DisMax 'mm' parsing to be tolerant of whitespace
   (Erick Erickson via hossman)
   
-* SOLR-2193, SOLR-2565:  SolrCores now properly share IndexWriters across SolrCore reloads.
+* SOLR-2193, SOLR-2565, SOLR-2651: SolrCores now properly share IndexWriters across SolrCore reloads.
   (Mark Miller, Robert Muir)
   
 * SOLR-2535: REGRESSION: in Solr 3.x and trunk the admin/file handler 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
index 05bf268988a..2698d26bef9 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ import org.apache.solr.common.SolrException;
 import org.apache.solr.common.cloud.ZooKeeperException;
 import org.apache.solr.common.params.CoreAdminParams;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.DOMUtil;
-import org.apache.solr.common.util.XML;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.FileUtils;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.SystemIdResolver;
 import org.apache.solr.core.SolrXMLSerializer.SolrCoreXMLDef;
@@ -713,7 +712,42 @@ public class CoreContainer
     if (core == null)
       throw new SolrException( SolrException.ErrorCode.BAD_REQUEST, "No such core: " + name );
 
-    SolrCore newCore = core.reload(libLoader);
+    CoreDescriptor cd = core.getCoreDescriptor();
+  
+    File instanceDir = new File(cd.getInstanceDir());
+    if (!instanceDir.isAbsolute()) {
+      instanceDir = new File(getSolrHome(), instanceDir.getName());
+    }
+    
+    SolrResourceLoader solrLoader;
+    if(zkController == null) {
+      solrLoader = new SolrResourceLoader(instanceDir.getAbsolutePath(), libLoader, getCoreProps(instanceDir.getAbsolutePath(), cd.getPropertiesName(),cd.getCoreProperties()));
+    } else {
+      try {
+        String collection = cd.getCloudDescriptor().getCollectionName();
+        zkController.createCollectionZkNode(cd.getCloudDescriptor());
+
+        String zkConfigName = zkController.readConfigName(collection);
+        if (zkConfigName == null) {
+          log.error("Could not find config name for collection:" + collection);
+          throw new ZooKeeperException(SolrException.ErrorCode.SERVER_ERROR,
+              "Could not find config name for collection:" + collection);
+        }
+        solrLoader = new ZkSolrResourceLoader(instanceDir.getAbsolutePath(), zkConfigName, libLoader, getCoreProps(instanceDir.getAbsolutePath(), cd.getPropertiesName(),cd.getCoreProperties()), zkController);
+      } catch (KeeperException e) {
+        log.error("", e);
+        throw new ZooKeeperException(SolrException.ErrorCode.SERVER_ERROR,
+            "", e);
+      } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+        // Restore the interrupted status
+        Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+        log.error("", e);
+        throw new ZooKeeperException(SolrException.ErrorCode.SERVER_ERROR,
+            "", e);
+      }
+    }
+    
+    SolrCore newCore = core.reload(solrLoader);
     register(name, newCore, false);
   }
 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
index 6d0edd171a8..d3bf1bb2cff 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ package org.apache.solr.core;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexDeletionPolicy;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriter;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.codecs.Codec;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.codecs.CodecProvider;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.BooleanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
@@ -297,20 +296,18 @@ public final class SolrCore implements SolrInfoMBean {
     responseWriters.put(name, responseWriter);
   }
   
-  public SolrCore reload(ClassLoader libLoader) throws IOException, ParserConfigurationException, SAXException {
-    // TODO - null descriptor and what if indexwriter settings have changed
-    SolrResourceLoader solrLoader = new SolrResourceLoader(getResourceLoader()
-        .getInstanceDir(), libLoader, CoreContainer.getCoreProps(
-        getResourceLoader().getInstanceDir(),
-        coreDescriptor.getPropertiesName(), coreDescriptor.getCoreProperties()));
-    SolrConfig config = new SolrConfig(solrLoader,
-        coreDescriptor.getConfigName(), null);
+  public SolrCore reload(SolrResourceLoader resourceLoader) throws IOException,
+      ParserConfigurationException, SAXException {
+    // TODO - what if indexwriter settings have changed
+    
+    SolrConfig config = new SolrConfig(resourceLoader,
+        getSolrConfig().getName(), null);
     
     IndexSchema schema = new IndexSchema(config,
-        coreDescriptor.getSchemaName(), null);
+        getSchema().getResourceName(), null);
     
     updateHandler.incref();
-    SolrCore core = new SolrCore(coreDescriptor.getName(), null, config,
+    SolrCore core = new SolrCore(getName(), null, config,
         schema, coreDescriptor, updateHandler);
     return core;
   }
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/BasicZkTest.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/BasicZkTest.java
index 20c1de8e47b..9029ef56069 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/BasicZkTest.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/BasicZkTest.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import org.apache.solr.update.DirectUpdateHandler2;
 import org.junit.AfterClass;
 import org.junit.BeforeClass;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.xml.sax.SAXParseException;
 
 /**
  *
@@ -94,13 +95,14 @@ public class BasicZkTest extends AbstractZkTestCase {
       assertU(a, a);
     }
     assertU(commit());
-    
+    int zkPort = zkServer.getPort();
+
     zkServer.shutdown();
     
     Thread.sleep(300);
     
     // try a reconnect from disconnect
-    zkServer = new ZkTestServer(zkDir);
+    zkServer = new ZkTestServer(zkDir, zkPort);
     zkServer.run();
     
     Thread.sleep(300);
@@ -129,6 +131,20 @@ public class BasicZkTest extends AbstractZkTestCase {
     assertU(delQ("id:[100 TO 110]"));
     assertU(commit());
     assertQ(req("id:[100 TO 110]"), "//*[@numFound='0']");
+    
+   
+    
+    // SOLR-2651: test that reload still gets config files from zookeeper 
+    zkController.getZkClient().setData("/configs/conf1/solrconfig.xml", new byte[0]);
+ 
+    // we set the solrconfig to nothing, so this reload should fail
+    try {
+      h.getCoreContainer().reload(h.getCore().getName());
+      fail("The reloaded SolrCore did not pick up configs from zookeeper");
+    } catch(SAXParseException e) {
+      
+    }
+    
   }
   
   @AfterClass
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestJmxIntegration.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestJmxIntegration.java
index f62fd2bf4b6..fac042fda65 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestJmxIntegration.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestJmxIntegration.java
@@ -123,7 +123,10 @@ public class TestJmxIntegration extends AbstractSolrTestCase {
     Set<ObjectInstance> oldBeans = mbeanServer.queryMBeans(null, null);
     int oldNumberOfObjects = oldBeans.size();
     h.getCoreContainer().reload(coreName);
-
+    
+    // chill for a moment, so our beans can get ready
+    Thread.sleep(1000);
+    
     Set<ObjectInstance> newBeans = mbeanServer.queryMBeans(null, null);
     int newNumberOfObjects = newBeans.size();