diff --git a/pkg/product/mke/api/cluster_spec.go b/pkg/product/mke/api/cluster_spec.go
index 68708387..8bd51059 100644
--- a/pkg/product/mke/api/cluster_spec.go
+++ b/pkg/product/mke/api/cluster_spec.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/Mirantis/mcc/pkg/constant"
 	common "github.com/Mirantis/mcc/pkg/product/common/api"
@@ -267,7 +268,10 @@ func pingHost(h *Host, address string, waitgroup *sync.WaitGroup, errCh chan<- e
 			}
 			return nil
 		},
-		retry.Attempts(12), // last attempt should wait ~7min
+		retry.MaxJitter(time.Second*3),
+		retry.Delay(time.Second*30),
+		retry.DelayType(retry.FixedDelay),
+		retry.Attempts(10), // should try for ~5min
 	)
 	if err != nil {
 		errCh <- fmt.Errorf("MKE health check failed: %w", err)
diff --git a/pkg/product/mke/phase/uninstall_mcr.go b/pkg/product/mke/phase/uninstall_mcr.go
index 5117076a..b5f755e2 100644
--- a/pkg/product/mke/phase/uninstall_mcr.go
+++ b/pkg/product/mke/phase/uninstall_mcr.go
@@ -22,6 +22,32 @@ func (p *UninstallMCR) Title() string {
 
 // Run installs the engine on each host.
 func (p *UninstallMCR) Run() error {
+	workers := p.Config.Spec.Workers()
+	managers := p.Config.Spec.Managers()
+	swarmLeader := p.Config.Spec.SwarmLeader()
+
+	// Drain all workers
+	for _, h := range workers {
+		if err := mcr.DrainNode(swarmLeader, h); err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("%s: drain worker node: %w", h, err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Drain all managers
+	for _, h := range managers {
+		if swarmLeader.Address() == h.Address() {
+			continue
+		}
+		if err := mcr.DrainNode(swarmLeader, h); err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("%s: draining manager node: %w", h, err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Drain the leader
+	if err := mcr.DrainNode(swarmLeader, swarmLeader); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("%s: drain leader node: %w", swarmLeader, err)
+	}
+
 	if err := phase.RunParallelOnHosts(p.Config.Spec.Hosts, p.Config, p.uninstallMCR); err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("uninstall container runtime: %w", err)
 	}
@@ -31,12 +57,6 @@ func (p *UninstallMCR) Run() error {
 func (p *UninstallMCR) uninstallMCR(h *api.Host, config *api.ClusterConfig) error {
 	log.Infof("%s: uninstalling container runtime", h)
 
-	leader := config.Spec.SwarmLeader()
-
-	if err := mcr.DrainNode(leader, h); err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("%s: drain node: %w", h, err)
-	}
-
 	uVolumeCmd := h.Configurer.DockerCommandf("volume prune -f")
 	log.Infof("%s: unmounted dangling volumes", h)