diff --git a/pkg/chartutil/chartfile.go b/pkg/chartutil/chartfile.go
index 68176ed5d..756b87cfb 100644
--- a/pkg/chartutil/chartfile.go
+++ b/pkg/chartutil/chartfile.go
@@ -42,7 +42,16 @@ func LoadChartfile(filename string) (*chart.Metadata, error) {
 //
 // 'filename' should be the complete path and filename ('foo/Chart.yaml')
 func SaveChartfile(filename string, cf *chart.Metadata) error {
+	// Pull out the dependencies of a v1 Chart, since there's no way
+	// to tell the serialiser to skip a field for just this use case
+	savedDependencies := cf.Dependencies
+	if cf.APIVersion == chart.APIVersionV1 {
+		cf.Dependencies = nil
+	}
 	out, err := yaml.Marshal(cf)
+	if cf.APIVersion == chart.APIVersionV1 {
+		cf.Dependencies = savedDependencies
+	}
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/chartutil/save.go b/pkg/chartutil/save.go
index bc8f5bdd9..e264c4391 100644
--- a/pkg/chartutil/save.go
+++ b/pkg/chartutil/save.go
@@ -141,8 +141,17 @@ func Save(c *chart.Chart, outDir string) (string, error) {
 func writeTarContents(out *tar.Writer, c *chart.Chart, prefix string) error {
 	base := filepath.Join(prefix, c.Name())
 
+	// Pull out the dependencies of a v1 Chart, since there's no way
+	// to tell the serialiser to skip a field for just this use case
+	savedDependencies := c.Metadata.Dependencies
+	if c.Metadata.APIVersion == chart.APIVersionV1 {
+		c.Metadata.Dependencies = nil
+	}
 	// Save Chart.yaml
 	cdata, err := yaml.Marshal(c.Metadata)
+	if c.Metadata.APIVersion == chart.APIVersionV1 {
+		c.Metadata.Dependencies = savedDependencies
+	}
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}