diff --git a/hack/make-rules/test-integration.sh b/hack/make-rules/test-integration.sh
index fa7b2084e53..d9631442c63 100755
--- a/hack/make-rules/test-integration.sh
+++ b/hack/make-rules/test-integration.sh
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ ALL_VERSIONS_CSV=$(IFS=',';echo "${KUBE_AVAILABLE_GROUP_VERSIONS[*]// /,}";IFS=$
 KUBE_TEST_API_VERSIONS="${KUBE_TEST_API_VERSIONS:-${ALL_VERSIONS_CSV}}"
 
 # Give integration tests longer to run by default.
-KUBE_TIMEOUT=${KUBE_TIMEOUT:--timeout 600s}
+KUBE_TIMEOUT=${KUBE_TIMEOUT:--timeout=600s}
 KUBE_INTEGRATION_TEST_MAX_CONCURRENCY=${KUBE_INTEGRATION_TEST_MAX_CONCURRENCY:-"-1"}
 LOG_LEVEL=${LOG_LEVEL:-2}
 KUBE_TEST_ARGS=${KUBE_TEST_ARGS:-}
diff --git a/hack/make-rules/test.sh b/hack/make-rules/test.sh
index 8bd403625da..1c816c8017d 100755
--- a/hack/make-rules/test.sh
+++ b/hack/make-rules/test.sh
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ kube::test::find_dirs() {
   )
 }
 
-KUBE_TIMEOUT=${KUBE_TIMEOUT:--timeout 120s}
+KUBE_TIMEOUT=${KUBE_TIMEOUT:--timeout=120s}
 KUBE_COVER=${KUBE_COVER:-n} # set to 'y' to enable coverage collection
 KUBE_COVERMODE=${KUBE_COVERMODE:-atomic}
 # How many 'go test' instances to run simultaneously when running tests in
@@ -211,10 +211,6 @@ if [[ -n "${KUBE_RACE}" ]] ; then
   goflags+=("${KUBE_RACE}")
 fi
 
-if [[ -n "${KUBE_TIMEOUT}" ]] ; then
-  while IFS='' read -r line; do goflags+=("$line"); done < <(echo "${KUBE_TIMEOUT}" | tr ' ' '\n')
-fi
-
 junitFilenamePrefix() {
   if [[ -z "${KUBE_JUNIT_REPORT_DIR}" ]]; then
     echo ""
@@ -304,7 +300,7 @@ runTests() {
   if [[ ! ${KUBE_COVER} =~ ^[yY]$ ]]; then
     kube::log::status "Running tests without code coverage"
     go test "${goflags[@]:+${goflags[@]}}" \
-     "${@}" \
+     "${KUBE_TIMEOUT}" "${@}" \
      "${testargs[@]:+${testargs[@]}}" \
      | tee ${junit_filename_prefix:+"${junit_filename_prefix}.stdout"} \
      | grep --binary-files=text "${go_test_grep_pattern}" && rc=$? || rc=$?
@@ -344,6 +340,7 @@ runTests() {
     | xargs -I{} -n 1 -P "${KUBE_COVERPROCS}" \
     bash -c "set -o pipefail; _pkg=\"\$0\"; _pkg_out=\${_pkg//\//_}; \
       go test ${goflags[*]:+${goflags[*]}} \
+        ${KUBE_TIMEOUT} \
         -cover -covermode=\"${KUBE_COVERMODE}\" \
         -coverprofile=\"${cover_report_dir}/\${_pkg}/${cover_profile}\" \
         \"\${_pkg}\" \
diff --git a/test/cmd/kubeadm.sh b/test/cmd/kubeadm.sh
index bef6edb5778..94bddf062fc 100755
--- a/test/cmd/kubeadm.sh
+++ b/test/cmd/kubeadm.sh
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ run_kubeadm_tests() {
   make -C "${KUBE_ROOT}" test \
   WHAT=k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/test/cmd \
   KUBE_TEST_ARGS="--kubeadm-path '${KUBEADM_PATH}'" \
-  KUBE_TIMEOUT="--timeout 600s"
+  KUBE_TIMEOUT="--timeout=600s"
   set +o nounset
   set +o errexit
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}