Quick Seo question regarding 301 redirect

[caw_ro]

Hi everyone and thank you for showing interested in my problem and for helping me out with this easy thing i have going on 

Here is how it puts out :

I have 2 websites, same niche, mostly same keywords.

Site #1 holding strong on google #2 ranking for months now.

Site #2 was holding strong in google top 10 rankings until 2 weeks ago when it got sandboxed for some reason

I want to use a 301 permanent redirect from Site #2 to Site #1 to pass all the link juice onto Site #1 and hopefully beat the #1 spot 

The question:

Will this affect Site #1 is anyway, considering Site #2 is in somehow sandbox ( i assume that, since he dropped more then 70 positions over night )

Is thins a good think to do or i risk damaging Site #1 by doing this ?

Thanks allot in advance.

Best regards,
Trinca Alexandru

[AlanMosley]

do you know why site 2  got flaged? You must have an idea?

I would say if your problems are not link related, then no it will not harm your site,. after all a 301 is simply redirecting requests for a page.

But if you have some paid links or somthing to do with links, then maybe it will.

[markettarget]

we had worked with a customer on a nearly identical scenario. The customer did what you were considering and saw no measurable improvement. The two domains in question were bike.com and beyondbikes.com. At the time the consensus was that "most" of the link juice and trust would get passed. After about 9 months, the reverse was tried with horrible results. Just about all rankings were lost. My advice would be to manage the properties separately if google ranking factors are top of your metrics.

[AlanMosley]

There is no garentee that a 301 will pass links juice.

If you try to redirecet one website tothe other there is a good chance it will not pass link juice unless it is the same content. meaning switching domains.

simpley 301 redirecting to the home page with also see the links dissmissed.

Thyere is a matt cutts video thats points out that you can not take it for granted that they will pass the link juice, it has to be an honest legit rerason to redirect.

but i have never heard of it hurting