diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV.rb b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV.rb
index 8689d977a7..f3ba9c0c56 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV.rb
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ module HomebrewEnvExtension
   def xcrun tool
     if File.executable? "/usr/bin/#{tool}"
       "/usr/bin/#{tool}"
-    elsif system "#{MacOS.xcrun} -find #{tool} 2>1 1>/dev/null"
+    elsif system "/usr/bin/xcrun -find #{tool} 2>1 1>/dev/null"
       # xcrun was provided first with Xcode 4.3 and allows us to proxy
       # tool usage thus avoiding various bugs
       "/usr/bin/xcrun #{tool}"
@@ -99,17 +99,26 @@ module HomebrewEnvExtension
       if File.executable? fn
         fn
       else
-        nil
+        # This is for the use-case where xcode-select is not set up with
+        # Xcode 4.3. The tools in Xcode 4.3 are split over two locations,
+        # usually xcrun would figure that out for us, but it won't work if
+        # xcode-select is not configured properly.
+        fn = "#{MacOS.xcode_prefix}/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/#{tool}"
+        if File.executable? fn
+          fn
+        else
+          nil
+        end
       end
     end
   end
 
   # if your formula doesn't like CC having spaces use this
   def expand_xcrun
-    ENV['CC'] =~ %r{#{MacOS.xcrun} (.*)}
-    ENV['CC'] = `#{MacOS.xcrun} -find #{$1}`.chomp if $1
-    ENV['CXX'] =~ %r{#{MacOS.xcrun} (.*)}
-    ENV['CXX'] = `#{MacOS.xcrun} -find #{$1}`.chomp if $1
+    ENV['CC'] =~ %r{/usr/bin/xcrun (.*)}
+    ENV['CC'] = `/usr/bin/xcrun -find #{$1}`.chomp if $1
+    ENV['CXX'] =~ %r{/usr/bin/xcrun (.*)}
+    ENV['CXX'] = `/usr/bin/xcrun -find #{$1}`.chomp if $1
   end
 
   def gcc args = {}
@@ -126,7 +135,7 @@ module HomebrewEnvExtension
       raise "GCC could not be found" if not File.exist? ENV['CC']
     end
 
-    if not ENV['CC'] =~ /^[^\s]*xcrun /
+    if not ENV['CC'] =~ %{^/usr/bin/xcrun }
       raise "GCC could not be found" if Pathname.new(ENV['CC']).realpath.to_s =~ /llvm/
     end
 
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb
index 1fcb23591f..a0491a2558 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb
@@ -266,17 +266,18 @@ module MacOS extend self
     end
   end
 
-  def xcrun
-    @xcrun ||= begin
-      path = "#{xcode_prefix}/usr/bin/xcrun"
-      path = "xcrun" unless File.file? path # just in case
-      path
-    end
-  end
-
   def default_cc
-    cc = `#{xcrun} -find cc 2> /dev/null`.chomp
-    cc = "#{dev_tools_path}/cc" if cc.empty?
+    cc = `/usr/bin/xcrun -find cc 2> /dev/null`.chomp
+    cc = "#{dev_tools_path}/cc" if cc.empty? or not $?.success?
+
+    unless File.executable? cc
+      # If xcode-select isn't setup then xcrun fails and on Xcode 4.3
+      # the cc binary is not at #{dev_tools_path}. This return is almost
+      # worthless however since in this particular setup nothing much builds
+      # but I wrote the code now and maybe we'll fix the other issues later.
+      cc = "#{xcode_prefix}/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/cc"
+    end
+
     Pathname.new(cc).realpath.basename.to_s rescue nil
   end