diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 9b91e4efa0d..cca59d07100 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -157,6 +157,9 @@ Bug Fixes
 * SOLR-4601: A Collection that is only partially created and then deleted will 
   leave pre allocated shard information in ZooKeeper. (Mark Miller)
 
+* SOLR-4604: SolrCore is not using the UpdateHandler that is passed to it in 
+  SolrCore#reload. (Mark Miller)
+
 Optimizations
 ----------------------
 
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 c82c10035ca..82e15c978f9 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
@@ -804,9 +804,7 @@ public final class SolrCore implements SolrInfoMBean {
         this.updateHandler = createUpdateHandler(updateHandlerClass == null ? DirectUpdateHandler2.class
             .getName() : updateHandlerClass);
       } else {
-        this.updateHandler = createUpdateHandler(
-            updateHandlerClass == null ? DirectUpdateHandler2.class.getName()
-                : updateHandlerClass, updateHandler);
+        this.updateHandler = updateHandler;
       }
       infoRegistry.put("updateHandler", this.updateHandler);