My question is what needs to be removed to drop the transmission pan on a 99 6.0L 2500 4WD(not a HD).I took a quick look under the truck and it looked like the heat shield,which is connected to the exhaust had to be dropped and possible the front drive shaft.Don't want to do more work than necessary,so I'm asking for help from someone thats tackled this.

You shouldn't have to take off anything. You might have to bend the shift cable bracket a little towards the front drive shaft to get the pan out, but you can bend it right back when you're done.

We disconnect the cable and get it out of the way. Pan drop after that is easy.