What does your tranny gear whine sound like?

Not in my experience. That suggests to me that the clutch fingers are not all at the same height.

Not really normal. Sounds like one of your clutch fingers is out of adjustment and rubbing on your TO bearing.

In addition to what has been said, the TOB should not touch the fingers until one inch of free play has been taken out by pushing the pedal forward. There is a spring under the floorboard that holds the pedal up and also hold the TOB off the fingers an 1/8" if everything is adjusted correctly. If the spring is broken, it'll alow the pedal to fall forward and contact the fingers, which will cause the pedal to "bounce" a bit as the engine spins.

I have a 48 cub with about 500 hrs total running time. all original,, gears are very quiet.. Some noise in a cub that has a lot of hours on it is ok. but when you feel the noise in the seat means excessive wear. Also who knows what the previous owners done to them inside over the years.