diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ack/AckClusterUpdateSettingsTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ack/AckClusterUpdateSettingsTests.java
index d7b98a73cb2..969987a14b9 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ack/AckClusterUpdateSettingsTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ack/AckClusterUpdateSettingsTests.java
@@ -45,11 +45,8 @@ public class AckClusterUpdateSettingsTests extends ElasticsearchIntegrationTest
 
     @Override
     protected Settings nodeSettings(int nodeOrdinal) {
-        //to test that the acknowledgement mechanism is working we better disable the wait for publish
-        //otherwise the operation is most likely acknowledged even if it doesn't support ack
         return ImmutableSettings.builder()
                 .put(super.nodeSettings(nodeOrdinal))
-                .put(DiscoverySettings.PUBLISH_TIMEOUT, 0)
                 //make sure that enough concurrent reroutes can happen at the same time
                 //we have a minimum of 2 nodes, and a maximum of 10 shards, thus 5 should be enough
                 .put(ThrottlingAllocationDecider.CLUSTER_ROUTING_ALLOCATION_NODE_CONCURRENT_RECOVERIES, 5)
@@ -66,11 +63,21 @@ public class AckClusterUpdateSettingsTests extends ElasticsearchIntegrationTest
         return 0;
     }
 
+
+    private void removePublishTimeout() {
+        //to test that the acknowledgement mechanism is working we better disable the wait for publish
+        //otherwise the operation is most likely acknowledged even if it doesn't support ack
+        assertAcked(client().admin().cluster().prepareUpdateSettings().setTransientSettings(ImmutableSettings.builder().put(DiscoverySettings.PUBLISH_TIMEOUT, "0")));
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testClusterUpdateSettingsAcknowledgement() {
         createIndex("test");
         ensureGreen();
 
+        // now that the cluster is stable, remove timeout
+        removePublishTimeout();
+
         NodesInfoResponse nodesInfo = client().admin().cluster().prepareNodesInfo().get();
         String excludedNodeId = null;
         for (NodeInfo nodeInfo : nodesInfo) {
@@ -111,6 +118,9 @@ public class AckClusterUpdateSettingsTests extends ElasticsearchIntegrationTest
                         .put("number_of_replicas", 0)).get();
         ensureGreen();
 
+        // now that the cluster is stable, remove timeout
+        removePublishTimeout();
+
         NodesInfoResponse nodesInfo = client().admin().cluster().prepareNodesInfo().get();
         String excludedNodeId = null;
         for (NodeInfo nodeInfo : nodesInfo) {