diff --git a/pkg/kv/kvserver/client_lease_test.go b/pkg/kv/kvserver/client_lease_test.go
index b168f531eb5e..a527c4f05077 100644
--- a/pkg/kv/kvserver/client_lease_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kv/kvserver/client_lease_test.go
@@ -936,6 +936,12 @@ func TestLeasePreferencesDuringOutage(t *testing.T) {
 		locality("us", "mi"),
 		locality("us", "mi"),
 	}
+	// Disable expiration based lease transfers. It is possible that a (pseudo)
+	// dead node acquires the lease and we are forced to wait out the expiration
+	// timer, if this were not set.
+	settings := cluster.MakeTestingClusterSettings()
+	sv := &settings.SV
+	kvserver.TransferExpirationLeasesFirstEnabled.Override(ctx, sv, false)
 	for i := 0; i < numNodes; i++ {
 		serverArgs[i] = base.TestServerArgs{
 			Locality: localities[i],
diff --git a/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_range_lease.go b/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_range_lease.go
index 9fdcfd84183b..3672c6d56e50 100644
--- a/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_range_lease.go
+++ b/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_range_lease.go
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ import (
 	"go.etcd.io/etcd/raft/v3"
 )
 
-var transferExpirationLeasesFirstEnabled = settings.RegisterBoolSetting(
+var TransferExpirationLeasesFirstEnabled = settings.RegisterBoolSetting(
 	settings.SystemOnly,
 	"kv.transfer_expiration_leases_first.enabled",
 	"controls whether we transfer expiration-based leases that are later upgraded to epoch-based ones",
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ func (p *pendingLeaseRequest) InitOrJoinRequest(
 
 	if p.repl.requiresExpiringLeaseRLocked() ||
 		(transfer &&
-			transferExpirationLeasesFirstEnabled.Get(&p.repl.store.ClusterSettings().SV) &&
+			TransferExpirationLeasesFirstEnabled.Get(&p.repl.store.ClusterSettings().SV) &&
 			p.repl.store.ClusterSettings().Version.IsActive(ctx, clusterversion.EnableLeaseUpgrade)) {
 		// In addition to ranges that unconditionally require expiration-based
 		// leases (node liveness and earlier), we also use them during lease