diff --git a/bin/ansible-connection b/bin/ansible-connection
index 9b1ae2cd04..322ccc5a91 100755
--- a/bin/ansible-connection
+++ b/bin/ansible-connection
@@ -214,6 +214,8 @@ def main():
                 raise Exception("EOF found before vars data was complete")
             vars_data += cur_line
             cur_line = stdin.readline()
+        # restore escaped loose \r characters
+        vars_data = vars_data.replace(br'\r', b'\r')
 
         if PY3:
             pc_data = cPickle.loads(init_data, encoding='bytes')
diff --git a/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py b/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py
index 53bddc555f..b91e480742 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py
@@ -936,6 +936,8 @@ class TaskExecutor:
         stdin.write(b'\n#END_INIT#\n')
 
         src = cPickle.dumps(variables, protocol=0)
+        # remaining \r fail to round-trip the socket
+        src = src.replace(b'\r', br'\r')
         stdin.write(src)
         stdin.write(b'\n#END_VARS#\n')