Will 404-ing a URL neutralise any bad incoming links?

[bytestart]

We're cleaning up one of our sites which was affected by Penguin.

If we rename an example page1.html (which has 400 bad incoming links) to page2.html (with no 301 redirects), will Google disregard the poor links entirely?

So, page1.html will return a 404 page.

Many thanks for your help.

James

P.S. I am aware that we may lose any positive link juice from any 'good' links which come in to page1.html.

[WhoWuddaThunk]

According to this article it should help: http://www.seroundtable.com/404-links-google-15427.html

[bytestart]

Thanks, that's a really interesting link.