diff --git a/lib/rubygems/basic_specification.rb b/lib/rubygems/basic_specification.rb
index 0eee52492f..b76716acf5 100644
--- a/lib/rubygems/basic_specification.rb
+++ b/lib/rubygems/basic_specification.rb
@@ -139,11 +139,11 @@ class Gem::BasicSpecification
   # The full path to the gem (install path + full name).
 
   def full_gem_path
-    # TODO: This is a heavily used method by gems, so we'll need
-    # to aleast just alias it to #gem_dir rather than remove it.
     @full_gem_path ||= find_full_gem_path
   end
 
+  alias_method :gem_dir, :full_gem_path
+
   ##
   # Returns the full name (name-version) of this Gem.  Platform information
   # is included (name-version-platform) if it is specified and not the
@@ -213,14 +213,6 @@ class Gem::BasicSpecification
     end
   end
 
-  ##
-  # Returns the full path to this spec's gem directory.
-  # eg: /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/gems/mygem-1.0
-
-  def gem_dir
-    @gem_dir ||= File.expand_path File.join(gems_dir, full_name)
-  end
-
   ##
   # Returns the full path to the gems directory containing this spec's
   # gem directory. eg: /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/gems