diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/api/python/PythonMLLibAPI.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/api/python/PythonMLLibAPI.scala
index 759aa57662436..cade839db118f 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/api/python/PythonMLLibAPI.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/api/python/PythonMLLibAPI.scala
@@ -246,16 +246,13 @@ class PythonMLLibAPI extends Serializable {
    * Java stub for Python mllib KMeans.train()
    */
   def trainKMeansModel(
-      dataBytesJRDD: JavaRDD[Array[Byte]],
+      dataJRDD: JavaRDD[Any],
       k: Int,
       maxIterations: Int,
       runs: Int,
-      initializationMode: String): java.util.List[java.lang.Object] = {
-    val data = dataBytesJRDD.rdd.map(bytes => SerDe.deserializeDoubleVector(bytes))
-    val model = KMeans.train(data, k, maxIterations, runs, initializationMode)
-    val ret = new java.util.LinkedList[java.lang.Object]()
-    ret.add(SerDe.serializeDoubleMatrix(model.clusterCenters.map(_.toArray)))
-    ret
+      initializationMode: String): KMeansModel = {
+    val data = dataJRDD.rdd.map(_.asInstanceOf[Vector])
+    KMeans.train(data, k, maxIterations, runs, initializationMode)
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/python/pyspark/mllib/clustering.py b/python/pyspark/mllib/clustering.py
index 5ba38850b42e3..a11d74fb34274 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/mllib/clustering.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/mllib/clustering.py
@@ -15,15 +15,8 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 
-from numpy import array, dot
-from math import sqrt
-from pyspark import SparkContext
-from pyspark.mllib._common import \
-    _get_unmangled_rdd, _get_unmangled_double_vector_rdd, _squared_distance, \
-    _serialize_double_matrix, _deserialize_double_matrix, \
-    _serialize_double_vector, _deserialize_double_vector, \
-    _get_initial_weights, _regression_train_wrapper
-from pyspark.mllib.linalg import SparseVector
+from pyspark import SparkContext, PickleSerializer
+from pyspark.mllib.linalg import SparseVector, _convert_to_vector
 
 __all__ = ['KMeansModel', 'KMeans']
 
@@ -32,6 +25,7 @@ class KMeansModel(object):
 
     """A clustering model derived from the k-means method.
 
+    >>> from numpy import array
     >>> data = array([0.0,0.0, 1.0,1.0, 9.0,8.0, 8.0,9.0]).reshape(4,2)
     >>> model = KMeans.train(
     ...     sc.parallelize(data), 2, maxIterations=10, runs=30, initializationMode="random")
@@ -71,8 +65,9 @@ def predict(self, x):
         """Find the cluster to which x belongs in this model."""
         best = 0
         best_distance = float("inf")
-        for i in range(0, len(self.centers)):
-            distance = _squared_distance(x, self.centers[i])
+        x = _convert_to_vector(x)
+        for i in xrange(len(self.centers)):
+            distance = x.squared_distance(self.centers[i])
             if distance < best_distance:
                 best = i
                 best_distance = distance
@@ -82,19 +77,15 @@ def predict(self, x):
 class KMeans(object):
 
     @classmethod
-    def train(cls, data, k, maxIterations=100, runs=1, initializationMode="k-means||"):
+    def train(cls, rdd, k, maxIterations=100, runs=1, initializationMode="k-means||"):
         """Train a k-means clustering model."""
-        sc = data.context
-        dataBytes = _get_unmangled_double_vector_rdd(data)
-        ans = sc._jvm.PythonMLLibAPI().trainKMeansModel(
-            dataBytes._jrdd, k, maxIterations, runs, initializationMode)
-        if len(ans) != 1:
-            raise RuntimeError("JVM call result had unexpected length")
-        elif type(ans[0]) != bytearray:
-            raise RuntimeError("JVM call result had first element of type "
-                               + type(ans[0]) + " which is not bytearray")
-        matrix = _deserialize_double_matrix(ans[0])
-        return KMeansModel([row for row in matrix])
+        sc = rdd.context
+        jrdd = rdd.map(_convert_to_vector)._to_java_object_rdd().cache()
+        model = sc._jvm.PythonMLLibAPI().trainKMeansModel(
+            jrdd, k, maxIterations, runs, initializationMode)
+        bytes = sc._jvm.SerDe.dumps(model.clusterCenters())
+        centers = PickleSerializer().loads(str(bytes))
+        return KMeansModel([c.toArray() for c in centers])
 
 
 def _test():
diff --git a/python/pyspark/mllib/linalg.py b/python/pyspark/mllib/linalg.py
index 2fe90fada674b..10bd30aaee7b3 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/mllib/linalg.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/mllib/linalg.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ def _convert_to_vector(l):
 
     if isinstance(l, Vector):
         return l
-    elif type(l) in (array.array, np.array, list):
+    elif type(l) in (array.array, np.array, np.ndarray, list):
         return DenseVector(l)
     elif _have_scipy and _scipy_issparse(l):
         assert l.shape[1] == 1, "Expected column vector"