Based on what you posted, I would suggest the Pilot Jets in the carb's were plugged with varnish; SeaFoam will preserve gasoline for up to two years, but after that, it will turn to junky varnish crud (a highly technical term --
). A thorough cleaning of the carb's jets would be my first step.
Since you ran it 300 miles, with the choke on full, I would be concerned that the cylinder walls might have been washed clean of any oil, suffering scoring. A compression test would be a good idea to see if this might be a cause of the smoking.
With regards to the idle, 1,000 RPM is normal.
Regardless of the current issues, ALL of the fluids should be changed: Fork Oil, Engine Oil + filter (3 Quarts 22 oz. -- forget the sight glass!), Coolant (flush & fill), Rear Shock Oil; change the oil on the rear spline of the shaft drive. Check the age of the tires, replace if more than six years old, or if there are signs of cracking, anywhere.
I believe the Electronic Cruise Control system was debuted in the 1987 models. If it doesn't work, search this forum for topics on how to adjust it: lengthy discussions, as well as YouTube videos on how to adjust it. Note that it only engages in 5th gear, above 38 MPH (up to 80 MPH, but it disengages automatically above 80 MPH). There are around five different safety switches which will disengage it, as well...
I'm barely mechanically inclined, so perhaps others can chime in with better, more accurate information. Best of luck! Cheers!
So I recently purchased a 1987 Kawasaki Voyager 1200 it's been sitting for a few years for a fair price it's my first motorcycle but I'm no dummy when it comes to engines and such any ways to get to the point did I wrote it 300 miles with it running like stuff full chokre only way to keep it running. Finally I decided I better ordered a carb rebuild kit just the other day I installed the rebuild kit on my carbs which I've had off and on three or four times now from getting pretty familiar with the operation and it's getting easier but needless to say after setting the air-fuel mixture screws and getting it to sit and idle with no choke at around thousand eight hundred RPMs I noticed smoke coming from my exhaust on the left side now I'm hoping that carburetor synchronization we'll take care of this problem but before I do that I wanted to check and see if anybody else have any thoughts or ideas on what possible problems could be it does have a slight backfire and popping sound when decelerating not very bad though.
