diff --git a/Lib/test/libregrtest/refleak.py b/Lib/test/libregrtest/refleak.py
index 6724488fcfb..d68ea63b5b3 100644
--- a/Lib/test/libregrtest/refleak.py
+++ b/Lib/test/libregrtest/refleak.py
@@ -8,9 +8,13 @@ from test import support
 try:
     from _abc import _get_dump
 except ImportError:
+    import weakref
+
     def _get_dump(cls):
-        # For legacy Python version
-        return (cls._abc_registry, cls._abc_cache,
+        # Reimplement _get_dump() for pure-Python implementation of
+        # the abc module (Lib/_py_abc.py)
+        registry_weakrefs = set(weakref.ref(obj) for obj in cls._abc_registry)
+        return (registry_weakrefs, cls._abc_cache,
                 cls._abc_negative_cache, cls._abc_negative_cache_version)
 
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tests/2019-04-08-19-01-21.bpo-36565.2bxgtU.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tests/2019-04-08-19-01-21.bpo-36565.2bxgtU.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8a14d08ba88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tests/2019-04-08-19-01-21.bpo-36565.2bxgtU.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix reference hunting (``python3 -m test -R 3:3``) when Python has no
+built-in abc module.