diff --git a/test/extended/apiserver/kubeconfigs.go b/test/extended/apiserver/kubeconfigs.go
index a88f2261b47c..d4ad84a0b250 100644
--- a/test/extended/apiserver/kubeconfigs.go
+++ b/test/extended/apiserver/kubeconfigs.go
@@ -4,11 +4,14 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
 	"regexp"
+	"time"
 
 	g "github.com/onsi/ginkgo"
 	o "github.com/onsi/gomega"
 
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/wait"
+	"k8s.io/client-go/util/retry"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/test/e2e/framework"
 
 	exutil "github.com/openshift/origin/test/extended/util"
@@ -32,29 +35,37 @@ var _ = g.Describe("[Conformance][sig-api-machinery][Feature:APIServer] local ku
 			framework.Logf("Discovered %d master nodes.", len(masterNodes.Items))
 			o.Expect(masterNodes.Items).NotTo(o.HaveLen(0))
 			for _, master := range masterNodes.Items {
-				retry, err := testNode(oc, kubeconfig, master.Name)
-				for retries := 2; retries > 0; retries-- {
-					if !retry {
-						break
-					}
-					g.By("There was a retryable error for " + fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", master.Name, kubeconfig))
-					retry, err = testNode(oc, kubeconfig, master.Name)
-				}
+				err := retry.OnError(
+					wait.Backoff{
+						Duration: 2 * time.Second,
+						Steps:    3,
+						Factor:   5.0,
+						Jitter:   0.1,
+					},
+					func(err error) bool {
+						// retry error when kube-apiserver was temporarily unavailable, this matches oc error coming from:
+						// https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/cbb5ea8210596ada1efce7e7a271ca4217ae598e/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/util/helpers.go#L237-L243
+						matched, _ := regexp.MatchString("The connection to the server .+ was refused - did you specify the right host or port", err.Error())
+						return !matched
+					},
+					func() error {
+						return testNode(oc, kubeconfig, master.Name)
+					})
 				o.Expect(err).NotTo(o.HaveOccurred())
 			}
 		})
 	}
 })
 
-func testNode(oc *exutil.CLI, kubeconfig, masterName string) (bool, error) {
+func testNode(oc *exutil.CLI, kubeconfig, masterName string) error {
 	g.By("Testing master node " + masterName)
 	kubeconfigPath := "/etc/kubernetes/static-pod-resources/kube-apiserver-certs/secrets/node-kubeconfigs/" + kubeconfig
 	framework.Logf("Verifying kubeconfig %q on master %q", kubeconfig, masterName)
 	out, err := oc.AsAdmin().Run("debug").Args("node/"+masterName, "--", "chroot", "/host", "/bin/bash", "-euxo", "pipefail", "-c",
 		fmt.Sprintf(`oc --kubeconfig "%s" get namespace kube-system`, kubeconfigPath)).Output()
 	framework.Logf(out)
-	// retry error when kube-apiserver was temporarily unavailable, this matches oc error coming from:
-	// https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/cbb5ea8210596ada1efce7e7a271ca4217ae598e/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/util/helpers.go#L237-L243
-	matched, _ := regexp.MatchString("The connection to the server .+ was refused - did you specify the right host or port", out)
-	return !matched, err
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf(out)
+	}
+	return nil
 }