I pulled the tail cone and found that the painter/mechanic
  had cross connected the cables. 

Egads Robert, I hope the note to self is: Don't trust anyone, including self.  Or, perhaps, Trust but Verify.

 

I had a distant engine installation that was supposedly at least supervised - The result included missing lock washers on exhaust nuts, safety wires missing, control rod ends not protected with area washers, alternator pulley not lined up with crank pulley, engine mount nuts torqued to bolt shoulder, etc.

 

It is frightening to see so such problems when aircraft come out of maintenance or paint shops.  It is certainly worth extra time spent checking everything that may have been "adjusted."

 

Glad that nothing worse was damaged, such as yourself.