Simple enough to check BUT on no account remove the rubber seal from the cap. They tend to swell so you can't get them back in. Also make sure that the domed pump cap has not collapsed under the bolt. You can knock it back to shape with a ball side of a hammer. Also, I would use a new soft washer under the bolt head.
You will get fuel out of the threaded hole if you pump the lift pump, but if you have any slight air leak, or air dissolved in the fuel it will try to build up in the filter head, the small hole in the side of the bolt is supposed to allow any air and a small amount of fuel to flow back to the tank.
The filter (and any 296 type primary water trap) are notorious for having the seals fitted incorrectly. Wrong seal in the wrong locations, twisted seals, seals not in the slot, and on filter head bolts that are O ring sealed some filter suppliers have supplied the wrong small O ring.
Try checking the fuel delivery to the filter (or through that banjo bolt hole) when turning the engine over by hand or starter. It can be easy to fit the pump lever in the wrong side of the cam shaft eccentric and that damage it so it won't deliver any fuel, although the priming lever will deliver fuel. Being an ex college engine, that might be al ikely cause