diff --git a/net/sunrpc/xprt.c b/net/sunrpc/xprt.c
index 846c34fdee9f..b7478d5e7ffd 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/xprt.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/xprt.c
@@ -487,13 +487,17 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(xprt_wake_pending_tasks);
  * xprt_wait_for_buffer_space - wait for transport output buffer to clear
  * @task: task to be put to sleep
  * @action: function pointer to be executed after wait
+ *
+ * Note that we only set the timer for the case of RPC_IS_SOFT(), since
+ * we don't in general want to force a socket disconnection due to
+ * an incomplete RPC call transmission.
  */
 void xprt_wait_for_buffer_space(struct rpc_task *task, rpc_action action)
 {
 	struct rpc_rqst *req = task->tk_rqstp;
 	struct rpc_xprt *xprt = req->rq_xprt;
 
-	task->tk_timeout = req->rq_timeout;
+	task->tk_timeout = RPC_IS_SOFT(task) ? req->rq_timeout : 0;
 	rpc_sleep_on(&xprt->pending, task, action);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(xprt_wait_for_buffer_space);